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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852434">Two-Bit Bonnie and Clyde</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitch_In_The_Blue/pseuds/Bitch_In_The_Blue'>Bitch_In_The_Blue</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>GTA Drabbles, One Shots, Outtakes, and AUs [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Grand Theft Auto Series (Video Games), Grand Theft Auto V</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>3Dverse references, Abandonment, Abduction, Affection, Age Difference, Anger, Angst, Apologies, Arson, Attempted Murder, Bad Weather, Begging, Breaking and Entering, Canon-Typical Violence, Car Chases, Caretaking, Cold Weather, Denial of Feelings, Dependency, Drug Addiction, Drug Withdrawal, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Sex, Ending B, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Family, Family Reunions, Fantasizing, Favors, First Dates, Florence Nightingale Syndrome, Fluff, Gift Giving, Goodbye Sex, Guilt, Gun Violence, Happy Ending, Home, Hotels, Idolization, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kidnapping, Language of Flowers, Love Confessions, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Masturbation, Masturbation in Bathroom, Nightmares, Non-Graphic Smut, Older Man/Younger Woman, Past Drug Addiction, Pining, Police, Post-Canon, Prescription Drug Abuse, Rampage - Freeform, Regret, Rehabilitation, Requited Unrequited Love, Resentment, Road Trips, Robbery, Romantic Angst, Romantic Tension, Sabotage, Sad with a Happy Ending, San andreas references, Sarcasm, Self-Destruction, Self-Harm, Sex, Sexual Tension, Sharing a Room, Sleeping Together, Slow Burn, Sneaking Out, Snow, Stockholm Syndrome, Support, Tenderness, Time Skips, Trauma Bonding, Travel, Unconventional intimacy, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Vice city references, car theft, caring gestures, fear of isolation, implied past trikey, rage issues, transference, unrealized love, wandering</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:14:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>28,330</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23852434</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitch_In_The_Blue/pseuds/Bitch_In_The_Blue</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What becomes of Trevor after Ending B is chosen.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael De Santa/Trevor Philips, Trevor Philips/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>GTA Drabbles, One Shots, Outtakes, and AUs [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/996552</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. What You Wished For</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He'd wanted this, right?<br/>Michael Townley's death for his betrayal ten years ago?<br/>Well the fat bastard was dead now. Found lying in a bruised, broken, pathetic heap at the power plant in the San Chianski Mountains.<br/><br/>Trevor was angry. Hurt. He told himself he wanted this outcome.<br/><br/>It was in all of the headlines, the internet, the radio, TV- anywhere news occurred just so the networks could spin it into a mystery.<br/>Was it a suicide? Was it a murder? Who was the killer? Who would want this Los Santos ‘family man’ dead?<br/>If they only fucking knew.<br/><br/>Trevor’s fingers curled into a fist on top of his knee. He’d been staring at the clouds for hours. Just trying to process all of this.<br/>Franklin Fucking Clinton, their alleged friend, had dropped Michael off of that tower in the desert. He’d even had the fucking <em> balls </em> to ask Trevor if he would help do it. All to appease that <em> cocksucker </em> Devin Weston.<br/>Franklin was dead to him. <em> Beyond </em> fucking dead. Like he never existed.<br/>And if Trevor didn’t have a loyal bone in his body, he’d kill the little shit.<br/>But why settle for putting down a two-bit gangster when he could go straight for the billionaire shot caller?<br/><br/><em> ‘Chaos tonight in Los Santos County as gunfire and potential arson were reported in the residential area of Tongva Hills. Witnesses claim seeing an unfamiliar red pickup truck outside of billionaire Devin Weston’s estate before the event. The lavish mansion was set ablaze before law enforcement officers could reach the scene-’ </em><br/>“That’s Los Santos for you,” Tommie sighed and turned off the radio. No wonder she was hearing so many sirens in the distance. She wasn’t far off from Tongva Hills, sitting in the parking lot of Chumash Plaza and waiting for her dealer, and the stupid news interrupted her favorite song. Hers was one of the only three cars in the lot. Parked outside of the hardware store.<br/>She started to send a text to Tracey.<br/>She was gonna get a dimebag, head back to Rockford Hills, pick up Tra-<br/><br/>The passenger side door opening made her gaze shoot up from her phone.<br/>A scruffy, middle-aged man had let himself into her car.<br/>“Drive,” he told her in a gravelly voice.<br/>“What the fuck are are you doing!?” She instinctively asked, struggling in her state of panic to find the door handle and get out.<br/>She froze when a gun was pointed in her face. “Fucking drive!”<br/>Tommie dropped her phone- the light disappearing when it fell face-down on the floor.<br/>She had no choice but to comply.<br/>She reversed out of the parking spot, tires screeching against the asphalt as she turned onto the highway toward Los Santos.<br/>She saw red and blue lights appear behind her, coming down from Tongva Hills.<br/>“Ah shit,” the man grumbled, peering back at the lights in the side mirror. She gave away his location by speeding. “Lose ‘em.”<br/>“We’re on the fucking highway!” She gasped. “There’s nowhere to go!”<br/>The gun cocked beside her head. “Lose the cops or lose the left side of your head.”<br/>Tommie jammed her foot against the gas pedal. The engine roared in protest, but the vehicle moved faster. The lights became more distant, and Tommie exited the highway in hopes of slowing.<br/>"You didn't lose 'em yet," the man warned. "They're still gonna be looking."<br/>"<em>I can do it! </em> " She insisted. Anything to keep him from pulling the trigger. <br/><br/>Trevor was actually impressed by how she weaved through traffic. Smoothly, the vehicle never jerked in either direction- even when cars in front of her switched lanes without a turn signal.<br/>She turned sharply into an unlit alleyway in Morningwood, turning off the car entirely to hide in the darkness between the buildings.<br/>"If they spot us…" Trevor warned.<br/>"They won't," the girl quietly said, hands up off the wheel. Visibly trembling. <br/>He had his doubts, gun pressed against her head, barrel disappearing in her thick, dark hair. <br/>But the sirens passed them right up before fading into the distance.<br/>Satisfied, he lowered the weapon away from her, and she hunched forward to let out a breath she must've been holding. Arms dropping into her lap. <br/>"Not your first time, is it?" He asked. <br/>"It's, like... the fourth," she muttered. <br/>"Nice," he nodded, concealing his pistol in the side of his jeans. He took this chance to get a look at her. Young. Pretty. Probably spoiled rotten. "You got a name?"<br/><br/>"Rosa," she told him after a moment's hesitation. She didn't want to give him her real name. <br/>Her phone began to vibrate on the floor.<br/>She froze, glancing over at him. <br/>"Answer it," he said. "Say anything I don't like and, well, you know what happens."<br/>Tommie reached for her phone, picking it up between her fingertips. <br/>"It's my mom," she told him. Wondering if she should still answer. <br/>"Go on."<br/><br/>She shakily swiped her finger across the screen, call going to speaker. <br/><em> "Hey, Tommie, were you going to be out all night?"<br/></em> Fuck. Real name out in the open. "It-- It looks like I am. Sorry."<br/><em> "It's fine, don't worry," </em> her mom sighed on the other side. <em> "Just make sure the car comes back without any scratches."<br/></em> "I'll do my best," Tommie replied.<br/><em> "How's everyone holding up?"<br/></em> "Not so great…"<br/><em> "I'll probably drop by over there tomorrow. I at least owe Amanda my support."<br/></em> Tommie needed this conversation to end. "I-I gotta go. I don't wanna leave Tracey alone too long."<br/><br/>Trevor's gaze softened slightly in dismay, realizing that they were talking about Michael's family. They <em> knew </em> them?<br/><em> "Okay, baby. Try to have a good night okay? I love you."<br/></em> 'Rosa' tensed. "Love you too." She ended the call just before Trevor swiped her phone out of her hands and threw it out the car window. <br/>"Your wallet," he said. <br/>She seemed confused. <br/>"<em>Fucking give it to me. </em> "<br/>"Jesus- okay!" She pulled the leather square out of the back pocket of her shorts and handed it over to him. He ignored the contents inside, going straight for her driver's license. <br/><em><br/>Tommie Rosalinda Vercetti. </em></p><p>Twenty years old, lives on Portola Drive. In the house just down the hill from Michael's. She was the neighbor.<br/>"Can I please go home?" She asked, trying to sound brave. <br/>"<em>Not yet</em>," he harshly replied. Her license picture was nice. She had a nice smile. <br/><br/>Tommie got the sense that he was trying to memorize her information. "Fuck, <em>please</em> let me go! Come on, I got you away from the cops! I didn't panic on the phone, I-- I won't say anything to anyone! Look- we can just forget the whole thing. You forget a thousand things every day, right?" She'd heard someone say that years ago- couldn't remember who. And she heard it again a few months ago in a news report about a jewelry store robbery. <br/><br/>Trevor bristled at the words. She knew Michael's stupid movie quote he liked to use when he was being dramatic.<br/>She kept decently calm, followed instruction, and outran the cops.<br/>“No, I don’t think so,” he decided. “You seem useful. I think I’m gonna keep you for a while, <em>'Rosa'.</em>”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Hotel Bed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The decision to keep the girl sprouted from four different points of thought:</p>
<ol>
<li>He had burned all other bridges. There was nothing left for him in San Andreas that he could care about. He was going to start over again. She just happened to be there for that decision.</li>
<li>Given that Ron and Wade wouldn't be coming with him, he needed someone to act as an 'assistant'.</li>
<li>He would benefit from keeping her alive- whether it be as an asset or as a hostage if the heat came.</li>
<li>She quoted Michael Townley. And it was like having a piece of his friend left behind.</li>
</ol><p>Trevor was never a huge believer in fate, but this had to mean <em> something, </em> right? Pure coincidence that someone who knew Michael just happened to stumble into his life right when a large void had been made.<br/>
<br/>
What was surprising was that he didn't forcibly move her at any point. He didn't drag her, push her- nothing aggressive. Just creating a phony story that they were a couple, so he had reason to lead her by her arm through the airport.<br/>
Even more surprising was that she still complied- even after he'd left the gun behind with her mom's car.<br/>
She was scared, but he hadn't killed her yet.<br/>
Nor had he given her reason to think he would anymore, as long as she went along with what he said. <br/>
Eventually she realized she was really leaving San Andreas. Around the time the outbound plane lifted off the ground. <br/>
He had her at the window seat, and she watched Los Santos's lights disappear behind cloud cover with tears in her eyes. <br/>
Fuck… This was really happening. <br/>
<br/>
"You can't say you never wanted to start over with a clean slate," Trevor told her. Trying to do what he did best and 'sway' her into loyalty.<br/>
She didn't so much as look at him. Fixated on the darkness outside the window. <br/>
"That's the plan," he continued. "Your life in Los Santos? Forget about it. We're going to the <em>real</em> world where you can do more than just get some fake plastic tits and have old rich men exploit you-"<br/>
"<em>Fuck you.</em> " She turned to him with hatred in her eyes. Bloodshot and brimming with tears. <br/>
He wasn't really prepared for that kind of response. Ron and Wade blindly agreed with him. On everything, from the beginning. <em>They</em> never cried, but they cowered.<br/>
Seeing his new accomplice, tears in her eyes, scared but angry, responding to him with malice, had reminded him of both Michael and Franklin.<br/>
She wasn't a random civilian- she was something like <em> them.<br/>
</em> She turned her gaze away from him and back out at the window, leaving him to observe her in silence. <br/>
<br/>
They landed in Las Venturas. Early in the morning before the sun was up. <br/>
Tommie had never left San Andreas before, so the bright lights of the strip had her looking like a curious tourist. <br/>
Trevor had to physically pull her along by her arm to get her to stop staring at all of the attractions visible from the sidewalk. The fountains, appealing architecture, showgirls in skimpy costumes, Elvis impersonators, flashing lights, music everywhere- if she were here for any other reason, she'd be excited. <br/>
But Trevor wanted to be out of sight. <br/>
Hotels on the strip were surprisingly cheap- even at the famed hotels with the popular casinos that appeared in Vinewood movies. <br/>
Trevor had settled on Caligula's Palace. <br/>
He booked the cheapest room they had that could fit two people. <br/>
Tommie thought that was strange. He didn't seem to care about the price of two last-minute airline tickets. How much money did he even have? How long would he keep this up?<br/>
She wondered this on the elevator ride up.<br/>
<br/>
"Ever been to Las Venturas before?" He asked mid-ascent, finally trying to break the silence that had lasted since the plane. It was only the two of them in the elevator. Most occupants were already in bed- or still on the casino floor.<br/>
"I've never left San Andreas before," she murmured. "But, technically… I guess I have."<br/>
"Meaning?"<br/>
"My mom lived here for a while when she was pregnant with me," she answered. "In this hotel."<br/>
"How'd she end up here?"<br/>
"It's complicated."<br/>
This girl was an enigma. He knew very little about her, and what he knew only raised more questions. <br/>
"Tommie Rosalinda Vercetti," he recalled what her ID said. "That's from something, right? Somebody famous?" She lived in Los Santos, so she might be related to an actor or something. <br/>
"Rosa- <em> leenda </em> ," she corrected the pronunciation. "And I <em> guess </em> it's 'famous'... My dad's Tommy Vercetti. 'The Harwood Butcher'."<br/>
… <em> Oh. </em>  <br/>
That was another million questions raised. <br/>
This reaffirmed his previous thought: she really was something like him.<br/>
Keeping her alive was a good investment.<br/>
<br/>
<span>Tommie noted that there was only one bed in the room and felt sick.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Trevor didn’t seem to notice, locking the door before making his way to the mattress.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>He stopped in his tracks when Tommie pulled off one of the sheets and headed toward the opposite corner of the room.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“Fuck are you doing?” He asked.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“I’m not sharing a bed with you,” she answered, wrapping the sheet around herself and sitting on the floor. Keeping as much distance from him as possible.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“Will you chill out!?" He snapped. "I'm not gonna fuck you, if that's what you're so afraid of. Frankly, you're not my type. Too whiny, not enough meat on the bones."<br/>
He gestured at her body, seeming to take an extended look.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Tommie bit her tongue, standing by while Trevor left the bed, grabbed one of the plush armchairs from another corner of the room and dragged it in front of the door. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>"You can have the bed, then. Since you seem to like bitching about 'personal space' so much," he sat in the chair and grumbled to himself inaudibly. Not paying her any more attention.</span><span><br/>
</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Tommie turned her attention to the room. Clean and nicely decorated. The windows faced the lights of the strip. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>What she hadn't mentioned was that an associate of her mom's still ran the Four Dragons Casino down the road. If she could wait until Trevor fell asleep to sneak out, she could get there and ask for Woozie.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>For now, she'd let Trevor think she was still playing along.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>She closed the curtains and kicked off her sandals at the foot of the bed. She got under the covers, keeping her back to him, and waited for him to fall asleep.</span><span><br/>
</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Tommie wanted desperately to sleep too. To just end this nightmare by waking up in her own bed, hungover and getting ready to shower the pot smell out of her hair-- the way things would've been if her plan had worked out. <br/>
</span><span>Instead it was six in the morning, and she'd been awake for the last three hours, watching the time pass on the alarm clock beside the hotel bed. <br/>
</span><span>Slowly, she sat up and left the sheets. <br/>
</span><span>Trevor was asleep in the chair. A look of misery on his face like he was having terrible dreams. <br/>
</span><span>Blocking the only exit. <br/>
</span><span>FUCK.<br/>
<br/>
</span><span>Another idea. <br/>
</span><span>She could kill him.<br/>
</span><span><br/>
</span><span>She picked up a pen from the nearby desk. <br/>
</span><span>She crept closer, steps silenced by the thin carpeting. <br/>
</span><span>His head leaned to the side left the other side of his neck exposed. <br/>
</span><span>She fixed her gaze on that spot. Hand clenched so tightly around the pen that she was shaking with nerves. <br/>
</span><span>She would have only one shot. How much strength did it take to stab through to the carotid artery?<br/>
</span><span>She raised her arm, entire body tensed to add to the blow-<br/>
<br/>
</span><span>He made a sobbing noise in his sleep, and she took a step back- reflexively hiding the pen behind her back. <br/>
</span><span>His breathing was uneven, and he looked pained, but he stayed asleep. <br/>
</span><span>Tommie couldn't help but watch him dream.<br/>
</span><span>A tear rolled down his face.<br/>
</span><span>Pitiful. Pathetic. <br/>
</span><span>Suddenly much more human than what she'd seen yesterday.</span><br/>
<span>His hand twitched and she lost her nerve, quickly moving back to the bed to pretend she'd never left it. Pen clasped tightly under the pillow. <br/>
</span><span>Listening to him cry in his sleep. </span></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Safe With You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Get up."<br/>
Tommie didn't realize she was asleep until her eyes opened to shreds of sunlight through the cracks in the curtains.<br/>
Trevor standing over her made her let out a startled yelp and scoot across the bed to get away- ending up falling onto the floor on the other side.<br/>
Trevor got a laugh out of that. “Fuck, you’re jumpy.”<br/>
“You’d be fucking jumpy too if you were me!” She retorted, standing up and untangling herself from the sheets. Having to adjust her shirt because it had twisted around her torso in her sleep. “<em>Jesus</em>… What’s going on, are the cops here?”<br/>
Trevor grimaced. “No, but they might be if we don’t get moving.”<br/>
“<em>Oh, well, I better get a move on then,</em>” Tommie quipped and ran a hand through her tangled curls. Travel made her feel dirty. Or maybe it was just from being around Trevor. “Can I at least take a shower first?”<br/>
<br/>
“Nope, we’re going <em> now </em> ,” he said, irritable thanks to her response.<br/>
She was mouthy for someone who was supposedly afraid of what he might do to her.<br/>
He wasn’t sure yet if he liked that or not.<br/>
<br/>
“Fine, fine,” she shortly replied and stepped into her sandals. No bags, no wallet (he still had it), no phone. All she had were the clothes on her back and an empty stomach. “I guess we’re <em> both </em> gonna smell like a crackhouse, then.”<br/>
<br/>
Nope. Didn’t like it.<br/>
“Alright, you little shit,” he moved around the bed toward her.<br/>
She froze up for a second, and shrieked as he hauled her up over his shoulder.<br/>
“Put me down!” She demanded, trying to wriggle free.<br/>
But Trevor was much stronger than her.<br/>
“Clearly you’re not gonna move your ass without any motivation, so I guess I gotta do it <em>for</em> you,” he replied, carrying her out of the hotel room and toward the elevators.<br/>
“I was <em> gonna! </em> Just- put me down!”<br/>
Trevor set her on her feet when they were inside of the elevator, receiving awkward smiles from the middle-aged couple who were already inside with their luggage.<br/>
“Y’know, you’re uh… Supposed to carry her <em> different </em> , right?” The man joked, getting looks from both Trevor and Tommie. “You’re newlyweds… Right?”<br/>
Trevor was about to tell him to fuck off- but Tommie spoke first.<br/>
“Oh, not yet,” she gave them a smug smirk, arms crossing. “We’ve been together for almost six years, but he says he won’t marry me until I’m twenty one, but I think <em> twenty </em> is close enough, what do <em> you </em> think?”<br/>
They both looked mortified, giving Trevor judgmental looks but otherwise deciding to mind their own business in an instant.<br/>
Oh, she was fucking <em> dead. </em><br/>
… Or she <em> would </em> be if the delivery wasn’t so smooth. <br/>
Okay, so maybe her smartassery <em>was</em> kinda funny. <br/>
<br/>
Tommie had expected some kind of consequence as soon as the words left her mouth, but she could see Trevor suppressing a smirk out of the corner of her eye as they left the elevator. Clearly playing his game would work. She could manipulate her way to freedom.<br/>
“You do that a lot?” He asked when they stepped out into the blinding sunlight. “Make up bullshit to freak people out?”<br/>
“Only when they’re not minding their own fuckin' business,” she said. “Like, do we <em>look</em> like newlyweds? I keep glaring at you and you’re like fifty years older than me for fuck’s sake.”<br/>
“I’m forty eight,” he corrected.<br/>
“Okay like <em> forty eight </em> years, then,” she replied with flat humor in her tone, following behind him as he strode toward the hotel’s parking garage. Jesus, he was Mr. De Santa's age and looked older. Must've been a <em> lot </em> of drugs in this man. “Where are we going now?”<br/>
“We need a car, don’t we?” He asked.<br/>
“Do you <em> have </em> a car here?” She answered his question with another question.<br/>
“Sure, pick one,” Trevor gave a broad gesture to the full first floor of the garage.<br/>
" <em> Pick one? </em> " She frowned, looking around at the vehicles. On the bright side, if they were caught, she could just pin this on him too. She was just along for the ride to stay alive, as far as she was concerned. As far as law enforcement would be concerned too. "Fuck it. How about the blue Cheval?"<br/>
"A sedan? Really? Out of every car here, you pick a sedan?"<br/>
"I'm not one of those people who gets horny for cars, alright?" She headed for the car. She could see that the doors were locked. How was he gonna pull this off? <br/>
<br/>
Unsurprisingly, he quickly found a way. <br/>
Trevor grabbed the steel trash can out of its spot near the garages elevator, and used it to smash the driver's side window open- making Tommie cringe from the loud noise. The alarm quickly sounded. <br/>
"Get in!" He ordered, tossing the garbage aside and getting in behind the wheel. He made quick work of shutting off the alarm. It had silenced by the time Tommie had closed herself into the passenger seat. <br/>
Then he expertly hot wired the car.<br/>
"Buckle up."<br/>
"You better not fucking crash," she replied, pulling her seat belt across her body and clicking it. Trevor didn't do the same for himself. She wondered why. <br/>
"You can at least trust me <em> that much </em> ," he pulled them out of the spot, leaving the parking garage by hitting the gate arm head on and trying to assimilate into traffic, in order to go unnoticed.<br/>
<br/>
The city soon disappeared, and then there was nothing but the desert and the rush of the wind in the broken window.<br/>
Tommie was bored out of her mind.<br/>
"So…" She had to speak up to be heard over the wind. "Where we goin'?"<br/>
"East," was his only response. <br/>
"That's not a place."<br/>
"It's <em> something. </em> "<br/>
No phone to accompany her on this unpleasantly spontaneous road trip. No idea where they were going or why.<br/>
<br/>
Hell, even he didn't have a plan in mind. He just wanted to keep moving. No doubt the FIB would be on an all out manhunt because he killed Steve Haines's billionaire fuckbuddy. <br/>
Nowhere was particularly safe.<br/>
<br/>
He drove for hours, trying to ignore hunger pangs. She must've been hungry too. She hadn't said a word, instead having fallen asleep with her head leaned back. Last time he saw her eat or drink anything was the complimentary stuff on the plane. A solid twelve hours ago.<br/>
Not that he really cared…<br/>
He glanced at the fuel gauge. Less than a quarter tank. <br/>
Trevor exited at the next gas station, seeing the girl starting the wake up when she realized they were no longer moving. <br/>
"Where's this?" She asked and rubbed her tired eyes. <br/>
"Stopping for gas," Trevor told her, taking the keys out of the ignition. He got out of the car and locked her in. "And for the record, if you try to run, you'll be lucky if <em> I'm </em> the one who takes you first. Lotta cute twenty-year-olds go <em> missing </em> in places like this."<br/>
"Look, my cute little ass is <em>already</em> missing<em>,</em>" she grimaced. "But if <em>you're</em> not killing or raping me then I guess I'm '<em>safe</em>' with you, aren't I?"<br/>
"'Atta girl, now you're gettin' it," he left her to enter the store. Presumably to pay with cash. No paper trail. How much money did he have to drag her along for however much longer?<br/>
"I really gotta pee, by the way!" She called after him, but he seemed not to notice. <br/>
Ugh… this fucking sucked.<br/>
<br/>
She didn't wait long for him to come back, and he dropped a plastic bag into her lap.<br/>
Full of food. Bottles of water, bags of chips and jerky. <br/>
"I didn't know what you liked," he said, attention on her for only a brief second before he turned to the fuel pump.<br/>
She hadn't actually expected for him to care enough to feed her. Least of all to consider what she might have wanted.<br/>
Tommie turned her head to watch him as he learned against the car while it filled. "Uh-- thanks," she said. Sincerely.<br/>
"Uh-huh."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Cold</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trevor wouldn't even let her walk to the bathroom alone. Instead following her and standing outside the door until she came out.<br/>After that, the drive continued. <br/>Still, terribly boring. <br/>Tommie had few options for passing the time. She tried the radio- but few stations came in clearly in the desert. She watched the landscape go by. She periodically fell asleep. Seeing that only an hour or two at a time had passed.<br/>They'd been driving for hours. No sign of stopping for anything other than fuel, food, and bathroom breaks. <br/><br/>Eventually the land outside the windows changed. Going from desert to mountains. The air became colder as the sun went down, and Trevor turned the heat on to try to combat the wind from the broken window. <br/>He was fine in his red flannel shirt and jeans, but Tommie was shivering in her shorts and T-shirt. Dressed for San Andreas, not the mountains. <br/>Trevor glanced over at her every so often. She didn't audibly complain, but she was shaking. Arms crossed, legs drawn up onto the seat with her. Trying to curl into a ball for warmth. But he could see goosebumps on every inch of exposed skin. <br/>… Ugh.<br/>He pulled the car over onto the side of the road. <br/>Tommie looked over at him, clearly wondering if this place in the middle of nowhere was the end of the line for her. <br/>"What are you doing?" She asked as he removed his flannel. <br/>He had a shirt underneath, and he had the tendency to run hot. He'd be good enough for a while. He held the overshirt out to her, and she only stared at it. Visibly confused. <br/><br/>"You're cold, aren't you?" He asked, tone accusatory. <br/>"You give a shit?" She responded similarly.<br/>"No," he quickly denied it. "I’m just tired of watching you sit there and shiver like a fucking sad little puppy. Take it before I change my mind.”<br/>“Fine, thank you,” she petulantly accepted the shirt, putting it on and buttoning it up. Instantly warmer. Even if the smell made her grimace. “When was the last time this was washed?”<br/>“I don’t fuckin’ know,” Trevor muttered and pulled them back onto the road. “Probably a week or two ago?”<br/>She looked disgusted “You’ve been wearing this for <em> two weeks? </em> ”<br/>“Not the whole time!” He retorted. “What are you, my mother?”<br/>“<em>I’d have fuckin’ raised you better if I was</em>,” Tommie muttered under her breath.<br/>She wanted to suggest a laundromat. First and foremost, a shower wherever they next stopped to rest-- and then what? Put her dirty clothes back on?<br/>She started to notice snow on the terrain.<br/>“Is there a possibility that we can stop somewhere and I can get some warmer clothes?” She asked. “I’ll use my own money… If you didn’t spend it yet.”<br/>“<em>Fuck </em> , you’re high maintenance,” Trevor looked over at her. “Fine, we’ll find you some clothes. Don’t expect anything <em> trendy </em> or <em> sexy </em> or whatever washed out designer bullshit you’re used to.”<br/>Tommie motioned to her clothes. “Do I <em> look </em> like I could afford any of those before?"<br/>"You were driving a <em> Lampadati.</em>"<br/>"It's my mom's," she said. "Ididn't have a car. I had a minimum wage job and <em> maybe </em> a hundred dollars in my checking account. I just lived in her house." She looked ahead of them. “Look, there’s a town a few miles ahead. Let’s just go there. I’ll make it quick.”<br/><br/>Selection was slim in this town, but she at least found a few cheap sets of clothes and a pair of boots. In addition, she grabbed some travel sized toiletries and a backpack to keep her things in while Trevor grabbed a set of winter clothes for himself.<br/>“Thought you only needed one or two things,” he noted at checkout.<br/>“We can’t all go two weeks in one outfit,” Tommie told him. <br/>Her card was declined.<br/>“Read, fucker,” she muttered under her breath, sliding the card through the reader again.<br/>Declined.<br/>“The fuck!?”<br/>Trevor looked over her shoulder at the screen.<br/>“You could try another card,” the teenager at the counter said, looking bored.<br/>Tommie turned to Trevor, an apprehensive look on her face. She knew he wouldn’t pay for her. Not for something he didn’t deem necessary-<br/>Trevor whipped a (newly stolen) spring assist knife from his pocket and pointed it at the cashier- who looked like she was about to wet herself with fear in an instant. “Fuck it, empty the register.”<br/>Tommie gasped. “Jesus fucking Christ-”<br/>“Shut up and grab the stuff,” Trevor ordered, keeping the knife near the young, terrified cashier’s neck as she shakily took out the drawer from the register and dropped its contents into a plastic bag.<br/>Tommie hurriedly grabbed their things. And as soon as Trevor’s fingers wrapped around the bag of money, he put the knife away and pulled Tommie out of the shop in a hurry.<br/>They got back into their stolen vehicle and took off down the dark road.<br/><br/>“<em>Why’d you do that!? </em> ” She snapped, realizing she’d lost her sandals during the run to the car.<br/>“'<em>Oh, thank you so much for getting me some clothes, Trevor’ </em> ,” he spoke in a mocking, high-pitched voice as they moved through town- passing up a lit police car that must’ve been called for <em> them </em> . “<em>‘I know you didn’t want to, but you got them for me! You’re such a gentleman, Trevor!’</em>”<br/>“Yeah, <em> thanks </em> , are you done sucking your own dick?” Tommie asked and wrapped her newly stolen jacket around herself on top of the flannel.<br/>“Not unless <em> you’re </em> gonna do it for me, Sugar Tits,” Trevor laughed.<br/>He lapsed into silence after he said that.<br/><br/>That fucking nickname… It just slipped right out.<br/><br/>“Charming,” Tommie sneered, not yet noticing his shift in mood. “I’m sure that line works all the fuckin’ time.”<br/>She saw the look on his face. Somewhere between angered and sad.<br/>She remembered how he cried in his sleep. Somehow this was just as hard to look at.<br/>“... You okay?”<br/>Not that she really cared…<br/>“I’m fine,” he quickly said, seeming to be reassuring himself. "Just fine.”<br/><br/>It was another few hours of driving before Trevor decided he was too tired to keep going.<br/>A crappy little motel on the side of the highway was what he’d settled on.<br/>He paid for the room, making sure this time that there were <em> two </em> beds.<br/>Tommie immediately went for the shower, desperate to get clean and warm.<br/>Trevor had dropped onto the bed closest to the bathroom, staring up at the ceiling for a while. Feeling exhausted, but doubting he’d be able to sleep.<br/>It’d been a few days since his last dose of any drug.<br/>He was starting to feel it now.<br/>The time in-between was fine- likely because he hadn’t been thinking of all he’d lost.<br/>Instead, this spoiled, needy, smart-assed girl’s company had kept him distracted.<br/>He heard the shower turn off.<br/>Maybe he really was right to keep her.<br/>Again, not a believer in fate, but…<br/><br/>Tommie emerged from the bathroom sometime later, hair washed and dried, teeth brushed, wearing clean clothes. Finally feeling like some semblance of herself as she returned to the room to see Trevor in one of the beds. Possibly sleeping, she couldn’t tell with how dark the room was.<br/>She thought at first to sneak out.<br/>But they were in the middle of nowhere. She’d try slipping away when they were closer to a more populated area.<br/>She gasped softly when she looked out the window, and rushed over to look outside.<br/>“What is it?” Trevor groggily asked.<br/>She looked at him over her shoulder. Did she wake him? “It started snowing.”<br/>“So?” He turned his head to her.<br/>“I’ve never seen snow before,” she explained, pulling up one of the room’s chairs up to the window so she could watch large flakes dropping in the motel’s exterior lights. The whole side of the room glowed orange thanks to the tone of the bulbs.<br/>Trevor had never seen someone so in awe just for some shitty weather.<br/>He turned over on top of the mattress just to watch her.<br/>“Beautiful…” He just barely heard her speak to herself.<br/>His chest felt tight.<br/>He couldn’t get himself to look away.<br/>He fell asleep before he’d even realized, watching her watch the snow, until his eyes couldn’t stay open.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Care About Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I got a second toothbrush."<br/>"So?"<br/>"So go do us both a favor and be hygienic."<br/>"Why? We're gonna get something to eat and I'll just have to do it again."<br/>"Fucking humor me!"<br/><br/>"Yours is the orange one!" She called through the closed bathroom door.<br/>Why the fuck did <em> she </em> care if he was clean or not?<br/>Trevor rolled his eyes and undressed to get into the shower. <br/>The hot water at least felt good. <br/>Not a lot of soap left after her turn last night. Then again, she had a lot more hair to wash.<br/>He ended up taking his sweet time. Eventually getting out and realizing he'd forgotten to bring his new clothes into the bathroom.<br/><br/>Tommie admired the untouched snow in the parking lot outside. She had watched it last night for what felt like hours before she finally went to bed. She had seen Trevor already asleep in the other bed, turned toward her. Likely to make sure she wasn't going anywhere. He looked calmer last night. Probably tired from driving for about fourteen hours. How far would they go today?<br/>She looked over when the bathroom door opened, and instantly regretted it. Trevor had wandered out of the bathroom completely naked. <br/>"Fucking-- <em> put some clothes on! </em> " She turned her head away. <br/>"I'm fucking working on it!" He shouted back, grabbing the plastic bag with his new clothes and returning to the bathroom.<br/>Tommie didn't dare look back until she heard the door close.<br/>Great. Now she'd seen his dick. <br/><br/>The next time he came out of the bathroom, Tommie did a double take.<br/>Trevor had borrowed the razor out of her travel kit and had shaved his face.<br/>“Wow,” Tommie couldn’t help but stare. He looked significantly less bad. “You just took about twenty years <em> and </em> any proof that you’re related to Bigfoot off of your face.”<br/>“Always helps to get rid of distinguishing features,” he said and rubbed his cheek with his palm. <br/>She noticed a dotted line tattoo on his neck. "Right… You wanna get breakfast or something?"<br/>"You eat a lot," he gruffly said, pulling on his jacket. <br/>Tommie glared at him and picked up her backpack. "Yeah, every four to six hours, like you're supposed to. How long do <em> you </em> go without eating?"<br/>"I dunno. Day or two."<br/>"Well… I can't do that. So let's just get some food."<br/>"<em>Fine." </em>Making him eat. Making him clean up. Shit she had no reason to demand of him. She nagged him the way Michael did back in the nineties when they were running jobs. <br/>At least when Michael Townley bitched him out, it was because he cared. As friends <em> should</em>. Had any of that care actually been true?<br/>As much as he didn't <em> like </em> how she thought she could call any shots, he caved in the end. <br/><br/>The motel had some food available in the tiny lobby area. Tommie had snagged some food for herself, and grabbed a few pieces of decent looking fruit to save for later.<br/>Trevor begrudgingly did what she said and had at least some toast and a few pieces of bacon. He'd grabbed an orange as well- the last one that was actually ripe.<br/>He was having a hard time trying to start the peel with unsteady hands; and it was starting to piss him off.<br/>He needed some kind of drugs in his system. Or else he’d lose his mind.<br/><br/>Tommie had noticed the struggle a minute or two ago, but didn't think anything of it until she noticed the angry look on his face. Just watching him struggle was starting to annoy her. <br/>"Gimme," she took it out of his hands and started peeling it with ease. Better able to start it with her longer nails. She handed it back in seconds, completely peeled, before she turned her attention to the TV mounted on a nearby wall.<br/><br/>Trevor eyed her for a moment, brows furrowed. <br/>Weird vibes in that moment, for lack of a better term. And he seemed to be the only one who noticed.<br/>He wasn't sure whether to say thanks or to tell her to stop acting like she gave any kind of a shit about what he did or didn’t do for himself.<br/><br/>“<em>-have identified a potential suspect for the murder of late billionaire Devin Weston and the intentional burning of his Tonvga Hills mansion. A vehicle left behind on the scene registered to ‘Trevor Philips’ has tested positive for fingerprints-”<br/></em> Tommie glanced over at him when a blurry photo of him came up on the screen.<br/>Trevor’s gaze was affixed on the TV. Presumably trying to see how much the police knew.<br/>“- <em> last seen at Los Santos International Airport boarding a flight to Las Venturas with a young woman who has been identified as Tommie R. Vercetti, age twenty. Ms Vercetti is the alleged daughter of Tommy Vercetti, who was convicted for the murder of eleven men in the Harwood district of Liberty City in 1971. Ms. Vercetti had been reported missing the morning after she followed Philips onto the flight. Los Santos and Las Venturas law enforcement both have yet to confirm her status-” </em> <em><br/></em> A picture of Tommie on her twentieth birthday appeared on the screen beside the anchorman.<br/>“Let’s go,” Trevor got out of his seat and pulled her up by her sleeve.<br/>Tommie had pretty much expected it, and hauled her backpack onto her shoulder as Trevor pulled her along.<br/>“That was <em> you!? </em> ” She asked him when no one was in earshot, out in the parking lot. "<em>You’re </em> the one who burned down Devin Weston’s place?”<br/>“You didn’t figure it out before?” Trevor grabbed what was left of their belongings in the car and decided to abandon it,<br/>Tommie didn’t see a lot of options but to follow him. “I thought you were just some random junkie who got into my car!”</p><p>Trevor found an SUV that had been left unlocked and motioned for her to get into the passenger seat. He was already working on hot wiring it when she got inside and buckled in.<br/>Finally, having a vehicle where all four windows closed.<br/>The lack of wind whipping into an open window made the car almost unbearably quiet.<br/>“Why’d you kill him?” She asked as she dropped her backpack into the back seat.<br/>Trevor almost didn’t want to tell her. “He called a hit on my best friend. And used someone I <em> thought </em> was a friend to do it.” The engine started, and Trevor got them on the move. Driving carefully through the barely plowed interstate, heading East again. </p><p>Tommie hadn’t expected any of what he’d described. “Jesus…” What do you say to someone whose friend was killed in a hit? “Sorry to hear that…”<br/>“Yeah,” he didn’t know what else to say… “So what were you doing sitting around in the parking lot that night?”<br/>Tommie sighed. That felt so long ago now. It had only been a few days. “My best friend’s dad died recently. So I was gonna buy us some weed, pick her up, and we were gonna sit on the beach, smoke up, talk it out...”<br/><br/>Tracey. She was going to comfort Tracey. He’d taken her from being able to do that.<br/>“Did you know her dad at all?” Trevor asked.<br/>“Yeah, he was an alright guy,” Tommie said. “Quiet, drank a lot, <em> really </em> good looking for a guy in his forties.”<br/>“Hm.” Trevor grimaced at that. A little bothered by knowing that she didn’t have the same opinion about him. Not that it actually mattered. Not many people did.<br/>“He used to be a bank robber, I guess,” Tommie continued. “Like FIB most wanted level. And he moved his family all out to Los Santos when he retired.”<br/>Trevor glanced over at her. “How the fuck would you know that?”<br/>“My friend wasn’t good at keeping secrets.” He noticed her looking back at him for a second, then she looked back outside.<br/>“Consider yourself lucky,” Trevor told her. “ <em> Mine </em> faked his death and let me think he was dead for almost ten years. Too good at keeping secrets. That fucker.”<br/>“Sounds complicated.”<br/>“It was,” Trevor agreed. “And now he’s dead for real. I did all my grieving a decade ago. And now it’s like starting all over from the beginning… He was the <em>one</em> person I thought actually gave a shit about me. I <em> never </em> would’ve fucking done what he did if the tables were turned, so what made him do it to <em> me? </em> ”<br/>His grip tightened on the steering wheel.<br/>“Everyone I ever fucking care about leaves me.”<br/><br/>Tommie looked over at him again, brows furrowed.<br/>She sympathized. Abandonment was hard to live through. She’d struggled with a similar feeling when she was a child- wondering why her father chose his drug empire over his pregnant wife, who he supposedly loved.<br/>Friendship didn't come easily to her, and apparently it didn't come easily to Trevor either.<br/>She couldn’t see the logic to leaving someone you supposedly cared about.<br/>And neither could someone as erratic and morally skewed as Trevor Philips.<br/>It was weird knowing his last name now.<br/>Even weirder knowing they had some things in common.<br/>“Nobody deserves for their loved ones to just bail on them. Not even you,” she murmured. Sure, he was a violent drug addict. She’d seen the track marks on his arms yesterday. And yes, he’d dragged her along on this violent pity party… But he hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t even tried to.<br/>There was, at the very least, some level of being a decent man.<br/>She could at least kind of mean what she said.<br/><br/>“You think so?” He asked.<br/>“Yeah.” she confirmed. “I do think so.”<br/>A spark of something in the back of his mind- similar to the satisfaction that came with the first drag of crystal through a glass pipe.<br/>The same tight feeling in his chest as last night.<br/>The same sense of calm.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. I'm Still Here</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tommie wondered if November was always this cold in the Midwest.<br/>
If she were in Los Santos she’d be in her back yard, laying in the sunshine, and breaking up the heat by getting into the pool every so often. <br/>
Out here, the sunshine reflecting off of the stark white snow only made keeping her eyes open very difficult without a pounding headache.<br/>
The woods were thick, and she hadn't seen any wildlife in hours that wasn't roadkill.<br/>
<br/>
The first stop they made was for a bathroom break. Not a single car in the lot with them in the rest area. And Tommie only noticed two cars passing it by since they'd stopped.<br/>
The Midwest was just too quiet for her liking. Like the environment was too harsh for most of it to be populated. <br/>
Give her the desert over this any day.<br/>
<br/>
Trevor had actually allowed her to go to the bathroom on her own this time. He opted to wait with the car.<br/>
He was anxiously drumming his fingers on his knees when she came back.<br/>
He looked pale. Sick, even.<br/>
“Are you okay?” She asked, looking him over.<br/>
<br/>
“Fuck do you care?” He fired back, feeling like he was in a daze. Lightheaded. Dizzy. The slightest move of even his eyes made electric shocks in the base of his skull. It was a terrible feeling he couldn’t escape. It made him nauseous.<br/>
“I don’t want you to run us off the road,” Tommie said. “Just let me drive.”<br/>
“Yeah fucking right,” he started the car.<br/>
“I’m not letting you drive all fucked up,” she reached over and turned the keys back to the off position.<br/>
“Who the fuck do you think you are!?” He snapped at her and swatted her hand away from the keys. “You’re not the one calling the shots here, stop trying to take charge by pretending to give a shit-”<br/>
“Fuck off, Trevor!” She snapped. “It’s bad enough that I have to be on this pity party road trip with you, even worse that I gotta go out of my way and <em> tell </em> you how to be a fucking adult and take care of yourself. But I will <em> not </em> let a miserable old junkie kill me in a fucking car crash that I personally could’ve prevented if he weren’t such a goddamn hard ass! Now get the fuck out of the driver’s seat or keep driving <em> alone! </em> ”<br/>
She got out and moved around to his side.<br/>
Honestly, she could’ve run in that instance and he wouldn’t even be able to go after her.<br/>
Yet she had chosen to stick with him. What the fuck for?<br/>
She opened the driver’s side door and helped him out.<br/>
Not that he needed or wanted the help.<br/>
“Alright, c’mon fucker,” she grumbled as she led him to the passenger side.<br/>
He allowed it, unable to feel anything else other than the hold she had on him.<br/>
“You better not be dying,” she told him. “I don’t have a phone, I haven’t seen one on you, and I have no fucking idea where we are. You die, you’re done.”<br/>
“I should be so lucky,” Trevor muttered under his breath and opened the window on his side just a crack as Tommie started the car and got them back on the road.<br/>
The cold air felt good. He must’ve been running a fever.<br/>
It had been a long time since he had to go so long without crystal. He needed something to pull himself together.<br/>
<br/>
Tommie drove carefully- and completely unsure of where she was even heading for the hours that followed.<br/>
She glanced at Trevor every so often to make sure he was still breathing.<br/>
He came in and out of consciousness from what she could see.<br/>
She could just leave him on the side of the road and keep driving until she found a means of getting back home.<br/>
It would be easy with him in this state.<br/>
A sob from him in his sleep made her look over in worry.<br/>
Crying in his sleep again.<br/>
Tommie shook her head as she kept driving.<br/>
He did this to himself. He was on <em> something </em> - maybe a mix of things. And he’d done this to himself by killing Devin Weston and separating himself from his own life- and her from her own.<br/>
She shouldn’t feel sympathy for him. But she did.<br/>
“Godfuckingdamnit,” she muttered under her breath.<br/>
She <em> did </em> feel sympathy. A lot of it.<br/>
He talked a big game, but he was just a sad older man who didn’t know how to be after losing someone who mattered to him.<br/>
Crying like a child. Doubting that anyone cared about him in any way.<br/>
Fuck, why did this feel so <em> bad!? </em><br/>
She couldn’t keep him in this car. She didn’t want them on the road at all with him in this condition.<br/>
<br/>
The next time Trevor opened his eyes, it was because Tommie had opened up the passenger side door.<br/>
She reached across his body to unbuckle his seat belt-- when did he put it on? Did she do it for him at some point?<br/>
“C’mon,” she said, helping him out of the seat and used her shoulder to help support him as she walked him to a door.<br/>
“Where are we?” He noticed it was still daylight. “How long were we driving?”<br/>
“Just worry about getting inside, alright?” She leaned him against the wall as she ran the room key through the electronic lock.<br/>
She nudged the door open with her boot and helped to lead him into the warm, skylit room.<br/>
<br/>
It seemed like he blinked, and he opened his eyes to closed curtains and a couple of lights on in the room.<br/>
Trevor sat up in the bed, feeling like he had sweat out half of his body weight. His jacket was off and lying on the floor beside the bed.<br/>
Throat dry, he shakily got up from the bed and slumped across the room to the sink outside the bathroom, where he cupped his hands under the sink and drank from the tap.<br/>
Tommie was nowhere in sight.<br/>
She’d taken advantage of his ill state and dumped him at a hotel and left with the car.<br/>
Smart girl.<br/>
Dick move, but smart.<br/>
His gaze darted to the door when the faint sound of the electronic lock caught his attention.<br/>
The door swung open and Tommie entered carrying a plastic bag of what looked like Chinese food.<br/>
“You’re still alive,” she greeted.<br/>
The door fell shut behind her and she put the bag of takeout containers onto the room’s desk.<br/>
“You’re still here,” he noted.<br/>
“I’m still here,” she agreed and got the white paper boxes out of the bag one-by-one. “I thought you’d need to eat.”<br/>
He watched her unwrap a pair of chopsticks and start on a container of lo mein.<br/>
Incredulous.<br/>
“I thought you got away,” he said.<br/>
“Well I didn’t.” She nudged the chair away from the desk with her foot and sat down, not hesitating to start eating. She pointed across the room with her chopsticks. “My shit’s over there, you didn't see it?”<br/>
Trevor looked to where she was pointing and saw her backpack lying on the floor beside the opposite bed. He didn’t see it before.<br/>
“How’d you get the room?”<br/>
<br/>
Tommie’s lips formed a hard line. “I had to dig around for your wallet. The guy at the desk didn’t wanna give me the room but I turned on the waterworks and said ‘please sir, my dad’s really sick and I’m too tired to keep driving’.”<br/>
She watched him move back to his bed. His forehead was slick with sweat. “He bought that?”<br/>
“Some people will believe anything a crying girl tells ‘em,” Tommie shrugged.<br/>
“How long did you drive?” He asked. “Where are we?”<br/>
Tommie ignored the question and offered him a container of orange chicken and a pair of chopsticks. “Eat something.”<br/>
Trevor grimaced. “I’ll puke if I eat.”<br/>
“You don’t have anything in your stomach <em> to </em> puke up,” she told him. “Humor me.”<br/>
He took the food from her and sat on the corner of the bed, somewhat close to her. His hands were shaking too much to use the chopsticks; and when he dropped them, he settled on eating with his hands.<br/>
Tommie frowned when she saw how ravenously he ate. He wasn’t in any shape for the lifestyle he put himself through. Why'd he do it to himself?<br/>
<br/>
Trevor’s stomach eventually settled, and having food had helped significantly. Tommie had directed him toward the shower after that. She followed him all the way to the door, even.<br/>
“Why are you still here?” He had to ask. The question had been burning in his skull since she came back to the room. She had her chance to leave, so why didn’t she take it?<br/>
“You’ve actually been taking care of me,” she told him. “You’ve been a real dickhead about it every step of the way, but you’re doing it. I figured I could at least keep you from dying until you’re done with whatever all this is.”<br/>
“Stop pretending to give a shit,” he said again, starting to close the door.<br/>
But she slammed a hand against it and it made him freeze up.<br/>
“Fuck you Trevor!” She snapped. “I’m here, aren’t I? <em> I stayed. </em> I didn’t even want to be here from the start but I stuck around even when you gave me the <em> perfect </em> chance to get away from you. I’m gonna help you through the shit, and then you’re gonna thank me by putting me on a plane back to Los Santos when it’s over. You’re gonna stay clean until I’m gone- <em> then </em> you can fuck yourself up if you make that choice. Don’t fucking put me through this again.”<br/>
She pulled the door shut, leaving him in the bathroom, staring at the wood in stunned silence.<br/>
Suddenly, the tight feeling in his chest.<br/>
For the first time, in a long time, he felt cared for.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Just One Fix</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The hotel she’d brought them to had coin-op washers and dryers in a room beside the lobby.<br/>Tommie decided to take the opportunity to wash their dirty clothes. She wanted something clean to wear in the morning. Not to mention that Trevor had sweat so much that he’d need something new to wear as well. <br/>She stayed while the wash and dry cycles ran, and she found a book lying on top of one of the dryers. A crappy romance novel that must’ve been five hundred pages long. Paperback. Worn out to death with parts of the cover folded enough times to have torn off in clean lines. <br/>Fuck it, she needed some entertainment. <br/>She held off on opening it while she waited for their clothes to be finished; then returned to the room to hear the water still running behind the closed bathroom door.<br/>It had been well over an hour since he went in.<br/><br/>Inside the bathroom, Trevor was numb to time passing. Standing under the hot water, trying to comprehend how the girl he abducted had chosen to stay and care for him.<br/>Did she not realize how much the power had shifted toward her because of it? <br/>Again, not a believer in fate. But starting to wonder if things had worked out this way for some kind of purpose. <br/>Thoughts kept swirling around in his mind. The same few over and over in different sequences.<br/>She didn't have to stay.<br/>She didn't have to help.<br/>She didn't have to care.<br/>She owed him nothing. <br/>But she was here.<br/>No one else he ever knew would've done the same for him- except maybe Patricia Madrazo.<br/>Even she had to go when the time came.<br/>And so would Tommie.<br/><br/>The thought of her going away made his chest and throat feel uncomfortably tight. Not calming this time, but…<br/><em> Terrifying </em> .<br/>It had only been a few days since he dragged her into his life, but now he didn't want to think about what it would be like when she was suddenly no longer in it.<br/>And he would be completely alone again.<br/><br/>"Trevor?" Tommie knocked on the door. She hoped she wouldn’t have to go in. “You good in there?” <br/>Ear pressed to the door, she heard the water turn off soon after she’d spoken. <br/>Okay, good. He didn’t die in there. Last thing she wanted to do was explain to the cops that she didn’t murder him. <br/>“I washed our clothes,” she added. “I’m gonna leave yours outside the door.” <br/>She set his other outfit on the floor outside the bathroom door then paused for a moment- waiting for any kind of response. <br/>When one didn’t come, she stepped away to turn off the lights and close the curtains. She dropped into the bed she’d claimed and picked up the book she’d found in the laundry room. <br/><em> ‘Innocent Rose'. </em> <br/>This was gonna be terrible and <em> really </em> horny, she just knew it.<br/><br/>Trevor couldn’t even come up with something to say when she’d spoken to him. <br/>Only just starting to grasp what all of this meant for him.<br/>He only opened the door to retrieve his clothes so he could get dressed. <br/>Comfortable and warm in clean, pleasant smelling clothes.<br/>But the tight feeling in his chest and throat wouldn't go away. He felt like he wasn't breathing enough. Suffocating despite full lungs.<br/>He assumed it was the withdrawals at this point- he had to get something in his system; and fast. <br/>If he could just return to a state of normalcy, he'd just leave the girl somewhere and be on his own. She was just a drag on him. He was only going through this because he had to take care of <em> her. </em> She was probably gonna just get him caught- and then what? Prison? Where he'd just have all of these symptoms again?<br/>"Fuck that," he muttered under his breath. "And fuck her. She doesn't care."<br/><br/>When he finally left the bathroom, he found her asleep in her bed despite the last bits of daylight visible through cracks in the curtains. <br/>Loosely holding a worn out book between her fingers. Where’d she get that? Sneaking around while he was incapacitated or busy?<br/>His resentment for her faded the instant he saw her face.<br/>Fast asleep, a peaceful expression on her face in spite of everything. <br/>Beautiful. <br/>He recalled last night when he saw her utter the same word as she watched the snowfall. <br/><br/>Trevor couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he settled into the other bed. <br/>Clean. Warm. Fed. Safe.<br/>Because of her, and <em>only</em> her. <br/>Trevor hit the side of his head with the heel of his hand. Anything to shut off the thoughts that painted her in a good light. She was <em> no one. </em> And he’d be rid of her soon enough. <br/>For now, he’d just try to sleep. He felt like he might vomit. <br/>Lying on top of the blankets, he had to turn away from her just to keep from watching her sleep. <br/>Clear his mind of her. That was the only way he’d get any rest. <br/><br/>He woke up hours later in a cold sweat, immediately looking over and seeing Tommie’s shape on the other mattress. Still out like a light. <br/>And he felt like complete shit. <br/>He shifted slightly on the bed and was immediately nauseated. <br/>He had to move slowly and carefully just to get out of bed and go to the bathroom, where he vomited behind the closed door. <br/>He couldn’t continue on like this. <br/>He needed something. Anything that could get him high as a kite. <br/>His watch said that it was two in the morning. <br/>She was asleep. <br/>He had the chance to do something about this. <br/><br/>This town was small, and rural. <br/>Lots of places like this had drug rings. But without knowing who and where or what they were slinging, Trevor didn't have the means of getting anything from them. <br/>He had to settle for second best. <br/><br/><em> CRASH!<br/><br/></em> The brick went through the glass pharmacy door and he was able to reach inside to unlock it. Sleeve pulled over his hand so as to not leave fingerprints. The hood of his jacket pulled over his head, he kept his face covered with his other arm as he identified a security camera when he entered. <br/>A display rack of knit scarves was near the door, and he grabbed one to wrap around his head as a mask while he headed for the counter.<br/>He grabbed only two bottles of pills. Both powerful prescription painkillers.<br/>He could hide them from her with ease.<br/><br/>He returned to the hotel to find that she was still asleep, but turned over. <br/>He had popped two of the pills when he left the pharmacy, and was already feeling looser by the time he parked at the hotel and hid the bottles under the back seats of the SUV.<br/>Maybe now he would be okay.<br/>He shed out of his jacket and got in his bed. He would give her the scarf he stole later. She wasn't used to cold weather. She could use it. <br/>He saw her outline move in the dark. The sheets rustled as she turned over.<br/>"Did you go somewhere?" She groggily asked, half-awake.<br/>"Needed some air," he told her. <br/>Why did lying to her feel so bad?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. And Here I Am</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They had moved towns again after that. Tommie drove them for ten hours until they were somewhere further southeast where they’d settled into a cheap motel once more.<br/>A week went by since checking in, and Trevor seemed to be over the worst of his symptoms.<br/>The dizziness and what he described as ‘electric shocks’ had remained, but weren’t as serious as before. They’d stay off the road for a while until he was well enough to drop her off somewhere.<br/>Tommie was starting to plan out how she would get home. She didn’t know where the nearest airport was, but she knew she could at least find her way back when Trevor would eventually cut her loose.<br/>“I think the first thing I’m gonna do when I get back to Los Santos is go to the beach,” she told him, seeing nothing but temperatures below fifty degrees ahead.<br/>They were each seated on their own beds, eyes affixed on the TV as it displayed the local weather and ate the pizza they’d ordered to the room under her fake name. They were somewhere around Tennessee. The weather had warmed, but only to being above freezing point. Still too cool for Tommie’s liking.<br/>“Not go home and show your mom you’re not dead?” Trevor asked.<br/>“I mean obviously that’s first,” she shrugged. “I meant the first thing I’d do for <em> me</em>.”<br/>“Yeah I can see you in your little microscopic, might-as-well-be-naked bikini just slathering tanning oil on yourself and baking in the sun.”<br/>“Picture it all you like, it’s something you’ll <em> never </em> see,” Tommie snickered. “I mean I just wanna go and sit in the sand. I wanna feel the sunshine. I wanna watch people surfing, swimming, racing their Seasharks… Maybe I’ll finally try scuba diving.”<br/>Trevor scoffed at that. “You sound like a tourist. Why would you wanna do that?”<br/>Tommie shrugged. “I always loved the ocean. I wanna get a doctorate in marine biology, do something for the environment. Make discoveries. See some fucked up, ugly ass fish-”<br/>“- Get eaten by a shark, have crippling student debt, probably never make any money,” Trevor continued.<br/>“More money than <em>you</em>, fucko.” Tommie flipped him her middle finger. It was strange to be talking with her abductor so comfortably, like they’d been friends for some time. He became very agreeable since she told him she was going to help. “I’m not trying to be a criminal like people expect me to be. I’m gonna make Vercetti into a respectable name. Or maybe I’ll change it all together and start fresh.” She tapped the pizza box, where the label with the order’s name was printed on the side. “‘Rosa Salamanca’. That’s what I’d change it to.”<br/>Rosa Salamanca.<br/>“That name sounds good on you,” he noted, leaning back against the wall at the top of the bed. “Why don’t you use it now?”<br/>“I do,” Tommie said. “All the time. I hate being called ‘Tommie’. I tell all my friends to call me ‘Rosa’. Who would wanna be named after their dad when he’s <em> such </em> a bastard?”<br/>“I’m named after my dad,” Trevor noted.<br/>“And is he a good guy?”<br/>“He abandoned me at a mall when I was a kid then disappeared out of my life,” he replied. “Used to beat the shit outta me before that.”<br/>Tommie looked over at him with concern in her eyes. Even if she didn’t realize. “Fuck, dude…”<br/><br/>Trevor noticed her expression. Chest tight again.<br/>He didn’t know why she cared, but she did. <br/>“I’m pretty much over it,” he leaned over the side of his bed and reached into a plastic bag he’d gotten at their last fuel stop- and came back up with several small bottles of various types of alcohol. “And good old fashioned substance abuse helps.”<br/>He tossed her a mini bottle of vodka, which she caught with ease. “Well… I guess it’s better than meth, right?”<br/>“Mmhm,” Trevor hummed, already downing 50ml of cheap whiskey. “Actually, throw that back, you’re not even twenty one. More for me.”<br/>“You can have it back when I’m done with it,” Rosa replied, then drank it with ease. She didn't so much as wince at the burn. Then she tossed the empty plastic bottle back at him. Not even of age and already a seasoned drinker from what he could tell.<br/>“How long have you been drinking?” He asked.<br/>“Since I was fourteen,” she replied. “High school party my freshman year. It was all downhill from there. Started smoking, made friends with people who were selling their ADHD medication or somehow got their hands on their parents’ cocaine.”<br/>“Typical Los Santos Party Girl, huh?”<br/>“Pretty much. Landed myself in rehab and everything,” Rosa nodded. “Been mostly clean since then. Relapsed once or twice, Mom never found out. But I quit for good. Now I just get by on weed.”<br/>Trevor eyed her, discreetly admiring her. “Is that why you’re trying to coach me through my own shit?”<br/>“It’s because I know how bad it feels to go without,” she replied. “You think about it a lot. Every time you’re miserable or having fun, your mind goes back to ‘this would be so much more fun if I was high’...” She trailed off, holding her hand out and wriggling her fingers as a signal that she wanted another drink.<br/>Trevor tossed her another one of the same kind.<br/>“I just remember feeling so <em> sick </em> all the time. And lonely, like nobody I knew could really understand what I needed when I was going through the hard parts,” she continued. “And <em> you </em> clearly needed some help with the same thing.I just thought I was knowledgeable enough to help.”<br/>Trevor felt like he was barely breathing as he watched her speak. Chest tight- every fucking time. Like she reached into his chest and had a tight grip on his heart.<br/>“And knowing that you’re on your own, I guess I just felt like you needed to not be alone. And here I am.”<br/><br/>She was asleep across from him later in the evening. Sprawled out under the sheets, hugging her pillow, long, dark hair concealing her face.<br/>‘- <em> You needed to not be alone </em> . <em> And here I am.’ </em><br/>The words cycled back to the front of his mind throughout the rest of the night. He couldn’t possibly sleep after hearing her say that. Much too fixated on the feeling it gave him by remembering the way she said it. Similar to a head high, but better. Starting in his stomach and going up through his chest and to his head.<br/>Absolutely addictive. He never wanted it to end and he couldn't possibly get enough of it. It was the best high he’d ever felt, and it wasn’t even from the fucking pills.<br/>It was <em>Rosa</em>, just being there because she decided that he mattered. And letting him know that she assigned some kind of value to him that made her want to stay for him.<br/>Did she have any concept of how much power she had over him?<br/>Lying on his bed, turned toward Rosa to watch her sleep, he traced her shape with his eyes and tried to etch the exact moment into his memory.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Something More</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trevor had the tendency to sleep for long periods of time.<br/>Likely starting to come down from however long he’d relied on drugs to keep him awake for however many days on end.<br/>Tommie, on the other hand, still couldn’t adjust to the time difference. Los Santos was two hours behind where they were, so nine in the morning felt like seven to her.<br/>A few days had gone by since the ‘why’ conversation, and Trevor had been quieter since then. Barely ever initiating conversation, but always seeming to be good natured. Even when he wasn’t feeling well. He must’ve been over the hump.<br/>She’d be able to go home soon.<br/><br/><em> ‘Horatio’s lush brown locks were wisped away from his face in a gentle breeze. His eyes affixed on Isabelle’s. He was so handsome, so very close that she could no longer contain her excitement and reached for his-’ </em><br/>Oh, neat. Another badly written sex scene.<br/>This crappy book was actually pretty fun to read.<br/>She spent a lot of time reading in the mornings, while Trevor was still sleeping.<br/>And as bad as the sex was, she did appreciate the romantic gestures between the two characters. Roses, nothing but. Back and forth giving each other roses as signs of love. Various colors to express different feelings as their relationship changed.<br/>Tommie had the sense the book would end with something to do with the roses. Or some other cheesy bullshit.<br/>She was getting close to the end. Still no major conflict.<br/><br/>Trevor shifted in his bed, and she looked up from the book to see him turning over.<br/>His face was peaceful when he slept well. No trace of the bitter grimace he wore when he was awake. It was actually kinda sweet.<br/>She lowered her book until it rested in her lap, just studying him in his relaxed state.<br/>For being a murderer, arsonist, junkie, kidnapper, Trevor wasn’t a bad guy.<br/>Well-- he was. But he had redeemable qualities that she could see. And for lack of a better term, he wasn't a <em>bad</em> guy.<br/>He made a small, abrupt noise in his sleep and his brows furrowed, lips parting.<br/>Tommie caught herself smiling thinly.<br/>“-sa…”<br/>Her smile dropped when she heard him utter a syllable in his sleep.<br/>… sa?<br/><em> Ro-</em>sa?<em><br/></em><br/>"Trev?"<br/>He twitched awake when he heard his name, eyes straining against the light on her side of the room when he opened them. Seeing her looking at him. Rosa never looked like she hated him anymore. Now, instead, with familiarity in between looking like she worried about him.<br/>"Yeah?" He asked, groggy. Feeling the low from needing more pills. But it was bearable when he could see her first thing.<br/>"Sorry for waking you," she told him. "I thought you were having a nightmare or something. You were talking in your sleep."<br/>He sat up slowly and rubbed his head. Soothing the internal shocks at the back of his skull. When would they stop? "What was I saying?"<br/>She seemed to hesitate. "I didn't really catch it."<br/>Trevor gave her an idle hum as a response, and left his bed to use the bathroom.<br/><br/>Tommie noticed every morning how he was sluggish. Like the withdrawal symptoms were worst after waking up. At least he was okay through most of the day. <br/>When he returned, he put his shoes and jacket on. "I'm getting breakfast," he told her. "What do you want me to bring back?"<br/>She was glad that he started taking better care of himself, at the very least. But would he keep it up when she was gone? "Uh-- I've been thinking about pancakes all morning."<br/>"Got it," he grabbed the keys for the car, as well as a room key as he left. <br/>Alone in the quiet room, Tommie sighed and rubbed her eyes. <br/>Was he dreaming about her?<br/><br/>He hadn't crossed the boundary in reality. Nor had he planned to. As much as he would've liked. <br/>But he dreamed about <em>kissing</em> her-- or rather, of her kissing him first.<br/>He felt like he was blushing as he walked to the car. Recalling the vivid dream in detail. <br/>He had been feeling unwell. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek to comfort him. Then it just carried on from there until he started to get the idea to take it further. <br/>That was the exact instant she woke him. <br/>"Yeah fucking right," he muttered under his breath when he got into the SUV and closed the door. Breath exhaling in a steam cloud. He retrieved his pills and dry swallowed two of them. "Like she'd ever let you kiss her. Let alone fuck her."<br/>After all, she had been repulsed enough by him to keep out of arm's reach most of the time. Never touched him aside from the time he couldn't walk himself into the hotel room. <br/>But to be so open to him that she'd let him put his mouth on her?<br/>He hadn't even seriously considered crossing the line like this in the waking world. <br/>But now, with the fluttering feeling in his chest at the mental image, he wanted nothing else. <br/><br/>He came back a while later with food. Two styrofoam containers stacked on top of each other in a plastic bag.<br/>He had wandered into the drugstore next door to the diner while he waited on his order, and found shelves of books inside. She seemed to like reading- so he got her a few titles off of the shelves. Anything he could find with a decent looking cover.<br/><br/>After making sure the pill bottles were well hidden in the car, he headed for the room.<br/>What he hadn’t expected was to walk in while Rosa was getting dressed.<br/>"Jesus-!" She gasped and quickly pulled the blanket off her bed to cover herself. <br/>"Fucksorry-" he pulled the door shut, heart pounding in his chest.<br/>He'd seen it. In the middle of pulling on her shirt, not wearing any pants yet. The view of her pink thong he didn’t know he wanted/needed until he saw it.<br/>… She had a nice ass. Really nice. <br/><br/>"You can come in now!" She called through the door a few seconds later.<br/>Trevor entered the room again and she was fully clothed.<br/>But he still couldn't get the image out of his mind; so he swiftly handed her the bags and made a beeline for the bathroom.<br/>He exhaled when he was finally behind the closed door. He didn't even realize he'd held his breathuntil then.<br/>Whether it was the pills making him extra 'alert', or just seeing Rosa, <em>specifically</em>, without her clothes-- He couldn't ignore that he had a semi.<br/>All this after the dream last night. <br/>Fuck it. <br/>He turned on the shower. The water was still running hot from recent use and the room got steamy quickly. Trevor shed his jacket first. Unbearably hot- was it a side effect from the pills? From meth withdrawals? From being the most turned on he'd been in <em>months.</em><br/>He hurriedly unzipped his jeans and his breath hitched when his fingers wrapped around his growing erection. Leaning his back against the door to keep Rosa from getting curious.<br/>How long had it been since he last got any action? Close to a month? It’d been at least a couple weeks since he last jacked off- given the complete lack of privacy since leaving Los Santos.<br/>He really needed this.<br/>A long, slow stroke got a low, throaty moan in response.<br/>His eyes fell shut to focus on the feeling.<br/>He was certain that Rosa wouldn’t know what he was doing if the water was running.<br/>His mind defaulted to fantasizing about what might happen if she <em> did </em> know.<br/>Just one more way to ‘take care of him’. Make him feel better. A much needed continuation of the interrupted dream.<br/>He must’ve been going soft. He didn’t just want to fuck her, he wanted to do something more than that. Make it count. Make her feel the same way she made him feel.<br/>Good. Special. <em>Loved.</em><br/><br/>The lack of follow up from him walking in on her was odd.<br/>Not even a dirty joke or a crude comment? That didn’t seem like Trevor.<br/>But to just lock himself in the bathroom the minute he came back? <em>Was he fuckin' </em><em>okay??</em><br/>Tommie set the bags down and headed for the bathroom. Door closed, lights on. She could see the shadows from inside that he was standing against the door. The shower was running.<br/>She heard the unmistakable sound of a moan, and her eyes went wide.<br/>She pressed an ear to the door. Morbidly curious.<br/>Was he fucking masturbating?<br/>Well… Not like she hadn’t expected something like that. Seeing her in her underwear probably didn’t help. She couldn’t be too shocked.<br/>“<em>Rosa… Fuck… I’m coming... </em> ”<br/><em> Now </em> she was shocked. The utterance of her name on the other side of the door made her heart jump into her throat. He was thinking about <em> her </em> specifically?<br/>Tommie’s face felt hot as she moved silently away from the bathroom door.<br/>She pressed her palms to her cheeks as she sat on her bed, as if it would make the blush disappear.<br/>“C’mon, get it together,” she muttered under her breath. “This probably isn’t the first time.”<br/>And he hadn’t implied that he <em>actually</em> wanted to fuck her at any point. Hell, he even said she wasn’t ‘his type’ on the first night.<br/>Unless that changed?<br/>“No. Shut up,” she told herself. Her eyes settled on the takeout he’d brought back. She left her bed to retrieve her pancakes. Food would take her mind off this. Cold by then but she didn’t care. At least the syrup was in a little cup instead of being a soggy mess.<br/>She noted a second plastic bag, and peeked inside to see several brand new novels inside. All different genres. Did he buy these for her because he saw her reading a lot?<br/>A <em> gift? </em><br/>“Oh…” The word came out softly, her brows furrowed as she put the pieces together.<br/>Treating her as a friend. Buying her gifts. Using the name she preferred for herself, even while he was possibly <em> dreaming </em> about her. Doing the same while masturbating, fantasizing about her.<br/>Even without everything else factoring in, the last two points had said it all: Trevor had a crush on her.<br/><br/>His head felt clear, for the first time in days. The shower afterward had solidified that.<br/>Still coming to grips with taking the step into new territory.<br/>No longer just admiring her and wanting her attention. Now new, intense <em> sexual </em> feelings.<br/>They might not have even been ‘new’. He’d taken notice that she was hot from day one. He even looked her over in that hotel room in Las Venturas. He said she wasn’t his type, but that was just to keep her from freaking the fuck out.<br/>Truth was, he <em> noticed </em> her. It had just been buried under everything that was happening all at once. But <em> now? </em><br/>… Shit, he forgot to bring clothes to the bathroom.</p><p>He cracked open the bathroom door and steam spilled out into the air. “Hey. I forgot to grab my clothes before I came in.”<br/>“Uh-- I’ll get ‘em for you,” he heard her say form around the corner.<br/>Shortly after, she appeared with his bag of stuff in hand. Cautious, like she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t see him naked for a second time.<br/>“Thanks,” he took the bag, looking her in the eyes and seeing something <em> different</em>.<br/>Their fingers accidentally touched.<br/>Something he didn’t know he needed so much.<br/>“How was your shower?” She asked slowly.<br/>“Good,” he answered, a little awkwardly. She couldn’t have known. He was so sure that he’d been quiet. She’d have to have her ear pressed to the door. “Nice.”<br/>“Good,” she nodded, also awkwardly. “Thanks for the new books.”<br/>The tight feeling didn’t come back. Replaced by a fluttering in his chest. “Don’t mention it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Square One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>She could hear the heavy breathing, plain as day even with the loud ambience of the heater kicking on and off every few minutes.<br/></span>
  <span>Tommie kept very still on her bed, and found herself listening intently- like every other time.<br/></span>
  <span>Across the room, in the opposite bed, Trevor was masturbating. Again.<br/></span>
  <span>Another week had gone by, and she noticed how he took long showers or waited until he thought she was asleep. Like tonight.<br/></span>
  <span>He never hinted that he wanted to have sex with her. But hearing her name pass his lips when he thought she couldn't hear it was confirmation enough. Multiple times now.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>What was especially weird was that she wasn't repulsed by it. It didn't make her see him as a threat again, didn't make her want to get away from him or arm herself out of fear of him trying to force her into anything. <br/><br/></span>
  <span>Instead, it made her feel sad for him.<br/><br/></span>
  <span>Trevor was an obviously lonely man. And he implied that she mattered to him because she treated him well, as if no one else ever had. He just had temporary feelings for the temporary role she had as a caregiver for him.<br/></span>
  <span>A muffled moan across the room. <br/></span>
  <span>She felt a twinge of arousal at her core. <br/></span>
  <span>Despite knowing that it was inappropriate, and that she shouldn't let him keep doing it, her physical responses were contradicting.<br/></span>
  <span>She actually started to wonder if she wanted to try it with him. Just one time to see what it was like.<br/></span>
  <span>She pinched her lip between her teeth. Hard enough to distract from the thoughts with a sharp pain.<br/></span>
  <span>Fuck, this was so bad...<br/></span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He always seemed so upbeat afterward. <br/></span>
  <span>Hours later when she was finally up and ready for the day, greeting her with a hint of a smile like he had a fun secret. Not implying that there was anything more to it but being in a good mood with his withdrawal symptoms fading.<br/></span>
  <span>"You seem like you're having a good day," she told him, noting some bounce in his step when he left the bathroom after his shower. "Must be feeling pretty good."<br/></span>
  <span>"Yeah, I'm starting to think I'm over the hardest parts," he agreed. He sat on the edge of his bed to put his shoes on. Planning to make a run for breakfast again- like every day. <br/></span>
  <span>He no longer needed her to remind him to eat, sleep, and bathe. He had it figured out now.<br/></span>
  <span>"That's great," she gave him a thin smile. "Maybe we can start planning for me to head back to Los Santos."<br/><br/></span>
  <span>Trevor felt any trace of happiness disintegrate inside him. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Of course her mind had already been made up. She was the one who set these conditions from the start. <br/></span>
  <span>"Yeah," He wasn't surprised by her wanting to go home, so why did it hurt so fucking much? "Yeah, we can start planning."<br/></span>
  <span>Rosa opened her mouth to speak again, but Trevor quickly stood up and grabbed his jacket and the room key. "I'll be back in a few. Gettin’ some food."<br/></span>
  <span>He left the room before she could say much else, pausing outside the closed door to draw in a deep breath to try to settle his nerves before carrying on. <br/></span>
  <span>He hadn’t wanted to be high so </span>
  <em>
    <span>desperately</span>
  </em>
  <span> since Patricia Madrazo disappeared out of his life.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The only person on Earth who hadn’t hurt or betrayed him in any way. The only person he could ever remember telling him that he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Trevor closed himself into the SUV and gasped for air. He felt like he couldn’t get enough air despite drawing in deep, full breaths.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The unpleasant, tight feeling in his throat had returned. Stomach feeling like an icy pit. Heart pounding.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He wanted Rosa to stay so badly.<br/></span>
  <span>Was this a fucking panic attack?<br/></span>
  <span>He knew he had to let her go, but the thought of being alone was too scary, even for him. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She was his only friend. The only human being who saw him for who he was and still be </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span> to him. It had only been a few weeks, but he had come to </span>
  <em>
    <span>adore</span>
  </em>
  <span> her.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He reached under the passenger seat for the pills. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Hands shaking, he opened up one of the bottles and poured a couple into his palm- but he’d dropped too many. Some of the small blue pills fell out of his hand and onto the passenger side floor.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Fuck me,” he muttered under his breath and started shoving them back into the bottle. He felt sick.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>A realization came as he was picking up the pills.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>She promised to stay while he was getting clean.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>He never got clean.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>If he just stopped taking the pills, they’d be back to square one.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Rosa would have to stay.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Stay With Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trevor had formulated a plan the following day- on his own.<br/>They’d start moving further southeast, until they reached Vice City. Where he would put her on a plane back to Los Santos at Escobar International. <br/>Tommie had reluctantly agreed to the plan. She wondered if he was using driving to Vice City as an excuse to prolong their time together. <br/>Likely trying to make his move before shipping her off and never seeing her again. <br/>And as flattering as that was, she couldn’t get involved any further with Trevor Philips- or else she’d be in just as deep of shit with the law as he was. <br/>Still, she didn’t want to leave him feeling like she <em>never</em> cared about him. Not after she’d seen him so upset over being alone. <br/>Tommie got the idea to write a note for him to keep after she was gone. Something to remember her by and to keep trying for himself. She bought herself a notepad and pen when they reached a rest stop on the highway, and started writing in the passenger seat while he drove. <br/><br/><em> ‘Trevor, </em> <em> <br/></em> <em> First I want to say fuck you for kidnapping me. </em> <em> <br/></em> <em> Second, thank you for being good to me. I didn’t expect you at any point to keep me safe and taken care of. I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, and what you’ve allowed me to do for you. I can forgive taking me with you on the run, but only if you take care of yourself when-’ </em> <em> <br/></em> <em> <br/></em> The car veered slightly off of the road and onto the rumble strips, making Tommie gasp and drop her pen.<br/>“Jesus!” She turned to him. “Did you fall asleep or something!?” <br/>Trevor looked pale and nauseous as the car came to a stop, pulled off on the side of the road. <br/>He got out from behind the wheel and stepped around the vehicle to puke on the ground. <br/>Tommie watched, worried by default. She got out after him, sliding her notebook in her pocket on the way out. “Are you okay?” <br/>“Fine,” Trevor choked the word out, spitting on the dead grass at his side. “Just feel like shit.” <br/>“Are you sick?” She asked, coming closer. “Do you have a fever?” <br/>“No,” he quickly said. “I just-- let’s get a room somewhere. Call it quits for the day.” <br/>“Yeah, okay,” Tommie came up behind him and set a hand on his back. “C’mon, I’ll drive.” <br/><br/>Trevor felt like death thanks to the withdrawals, but the comforting touch might as well have been a dose. <br/>Her genuine concern was so endearing. This was the right move. He was sure of it. <br/>He let her lead him back to the car, her hand never leaving his back until he got inside. He buckled in, as she told him to do many times. <br/>“Thanks,” he muttered, head leaning against the cold window. Maybe he did have a fever. And fuck, his stomach hurt. <br/>Rosa got into the driver’s seat and handed him a bottle of water from the back seat. “Try to drink, okay?” <br/>“Yeah,” he sluggishly took the bottle from her and did as she said. Hoping to wash the taste of vomit out of his mouth. “Just stop at the first shitty roach motel on the side of the road you can find.” <br/>“C’mon, we’re at least classy enough for a roach <em> resort</em>, right?” She offered him a simpering smile, buckling in and getting them back on the road. <br/><br/>Thankfully, Tommie didn’t have to make Trevor wait long. A small town appeared half an hour later as the sun was setting. <br/>She got them a room with two beds, as usual, and pulled up to the room to help him inside. <br/>Trevor immediately stumbled toward the bathroom and puked again. <br/>Tommie winced when she heard him retching through the closed door. What brought this on? Was it a second wave of withdrawals? Had he just been putting on a brave face all this time for her sake? <br/>God, this poor man… <br/>“Are you okay, Trevor?” She called through the door. <br/>“Best I’ve felt in <em> years! </em> ” He called back before the toilet flushed. <br/>Tommie rolled her eyes, relieved that he was well enough to still be his usual self. “I’m gonna get our stuff outta the car. I’ll be right back!” <br/>She took her jacket off and dropped it onto the bed closest to the window. If Trevor was sick, he’d need the bed closer to the bathroom. <br/>She headed out to the car, leaving the door propped open with the security lock. She grabbed their backpacks out of the back seat and hauled one onto each shoulder. <br/><br/>She brought them inside, and was about to lock the door when she realized: she forgot her pen. <br/><br/>She wanted to continue the note, so she headed back out. She opened the passenger side door, and the pen wasn’t on the floor mat. It must’ve rolled under the seat. <br/>She lifted the floor mat first, just to be sure it didn’t get pushed under the edge...<br/>A single light blue pill was lying under the edge of the mat. Partially disintegrated, likely from their shoes being wet when they got in after the last snow a couple states back. <br/>But this was definitely recent- or else it would’ve been completely dissolved by then. <br/>They had this car for weeks. <br/>“Motherfucker,” she muttered under her breath, sliding a hand under the passenger seat. <br/>She heard a faint rattle when her fingers bumped into what felt like a plastic bottle. She grasped the cap between her fingers and pulled out a half empty bottle of Deludamol. Prescription painkillers. <br/>Tommie’s expression shifted into a look of disbelief, then anger. <br/>How did she not hear these rattling while they drove? <br/>She set the bottle in the passenger seat, then reached under the seat again. She found her pen, but touched another plastic bottle with her fingertips. <br/>She pulled it out. <br/>A second bottle. Equanox. Another prescription drug. She didn’t even know what this one was for. <br/>She opened both bottles to see that the Equanox was still sealed. But the factory seal in the Deludamol was already open; and the pills inside matched the one she found under the floor mat. <br/><br/>When Tommie went back inside, Trevor was lying on his bed, jacket off, shivering despite the warm room. <br/>“Wake up.” She told him, moving toward him when he turned over to face her. She held the pill bottles out toward him. “The fuck are these?” <br/>The recognition in his eyes was clear. And he didn’t even have anything to say. <br/>“You had me fucking fooled,” Tommie tossed the pill bottles to the floor as he sat up in the bed, looking pale again. “You had me thinking that you were recovering. Well, <em> fuck me, I guess! </em> And fuck <em> you </em> for lying to me!” <br/>Trevor tried to argue back. “I’m not-” <br/>“No, we’re <em> done! </em> ” She snapped. “You were never gonna pull yourself together. You were just gonna let me <em> think </em> you were so I’d feel sorry for you and throw you a pity fuck!” She turned from him and grabbed her jacket and backpack. “Well that’s not fuckin' happening. I’m out of here. I’m taking <em> myself </em> to Vice City and <em>you're </em>staying right here.” <br/><br/>She started for the door, but was stopped by Trevor getting up and wrapping his arms around her middle to root her in place. <br/>“Don’t!” He pled, voice cracking. <br/>Hunched so his head was rested against her shoulder. She felt tears seeping through the fabric of her shirt. Was he really crying? <br/>“Don’t go,” he choked. "Don't leave me..."</p><p>The words uttered against her shoulder made her freeze up. Hanging onto every word.<br/>“I didn’t wanna bullshit you,” he continued, holding tighter. “I couldn’t just quit. I needed something to make it easier to deal with…” He trailed off, then gently turned her by her shoulder. <br/>She allowed it, anger dissolving when she saw his face. Scared. Crying. Sincere. Like a hurt child. <br/>“I stopped taking the pills a few days ago. I made myself sick on purpose so you would stay.” <br/>“Why would you do that!?” She demanded, rather than asked. Angry again. <br/>“I fucking hate myself,” he said, seeming to find it hard to look her in the eyes. Hands on her shoulders, only pulling one away to wipe his tears with the back of his arm. “I hate everything about myself. Before you, I didn’t give a shit if I died. I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I fucking dosed all the time-- but you make me not hate myself. You make me feel like I can like myself. Because someone like <em> you </em> can like me… Right?” <br/>His opinion of her was that high? <br/>Tommie blinked hard when she felt her eyes sting. Starting to well up.<br/>He didn’t wait for her answer, already seeing the affirmation when she dropped her backpack and jacket on the floor. "I need you. I <em> love </em> you,” he continued, sinking to his knees, arms around her hips, head against her middle. “I'm so fucking in love with you, Rosa, please," he continued. "Don't leave me."</p><p>What do you even say when someone is on their knees, telling you they love you, begging you not to go?<br/>All she knew was that he did need her. <br/>As manipulative as this was, she saw now that he couldn’t handle his addictions alone. <br/>The only question remaining was: did she care?<br/>“Get up,” she quietly said. <br/>Trevor did as he was told, like always, and stood. <br/>He towered over her in height, but seemed small in that moment. <br/>“C'mere,” she pulled him down toward her, arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. <br/>He immediately latched onto her again, face buried in the crook of her neck. <br/>They held tightly onto each other for a long moment. Quiet, while Trevor tried to pull himself together. Still letting out hushed sobs. <br/>Pitiful. Heartbreakingly so. <br/>“I need you to be honest,” she said. “Can you do that?” <br/>“Yes,” he agreed, tightly gripping the back of her shirt. Refusing to let go. <br/>“When did you get the pills?” <br/>“After the first time this happened,” he answered. “You were asleep, I snuck out and broke into a pharmacy. I felt so fuckin’ sick without ‘em.” <br/>“Our deal was that I’d help you through the withdrawals and you’d send me home,” she continued. “Were you ever gonna let me go?” <br/>“I was,” he pulled back to look at her, so she would see he was telling the truth. “I didn’t want to. But I was gonna. I just wanted more time.” <br/>“Vice City’s the real plan?” <br/>“Yeah,” he nodded. “Just- don’t go. I’m not ready to be alone again.” <br/>“I know,” she softly said, starting to massage his shoulders to calm him. “We’ll… We’ll talk about it in the morning.” <br/>“Okay,” he nodded again, subdued. Muscles relaxing with her touch. “In the morning.” <br/>“C’mon,” she moved him back to his bed. “I think you could use some sleep.” <br/>She sat on the edge of the bed when he’d settled in. He laid on his side so he could see her outline in the dark room. His hand slid across the sheets until it met hers and she allowed him to intertwine their fingers. "I love you so much... I mean that."<br/>She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I know, Trevor. Thank you."<br/>She set her hand on his, and gently rubbed the back of his palm with her thumb. <br/>The soft, affectionate gesture got him to fall asleep almost immediately.<br/><br/>Tommie waited; and when she was certain that he was asleep, she left his side to retrieve the pills and flush them down the toilet.<br/>With the empty bottles in the trash, she picked up her things off of the floor and silently brought them back to the car.<br/>She got in behind the wheel and started the engine, reversing out of the spot and getting back on the road heading south. <br/>Trevor wasn't her responsibility.<br/>She showed him how to take care of himself and that was more than enough.<br/>She should've left after the first time- then <em>none</em> of this would've happened.<br/>Her eyes watered when she pictured him crying and admitting his feelings for her.<br/>He said it three times. Desperate to make her see that it was true. Was it really?<br/>Tommie had put half a mile between herself and Trevor before she pulled off the road and into an empty community bank parking lot; where she started to cry.<br/><br/>The drive back felt much longer.<br/>But when she finally put the vehicle in park, she saw that only twenty minutes had gone by.<br/>Tommie let herself back into the room, heading for the bathroom and splashing cold water on her face. Her eyes were red from crying, and she was exhausted.<br/>She headed for the empty bed next.<br/>"Rosa…?"<br/>She froze between the two beds. "I'm here."<br/>"Sleep here with me…"<br/>He was half-asleep still asking for her to be close by.<br/>Tommie sighed quietly in resignation, and crawled into the bed next to him. He laid an arm over her middle and pulled her in close until his chest was against her back.<br/>Warm. Pleasant. Calm. <br/>He loved her. She could see that now.<br/>And she cared about him too much to abandon him.<br/>Vice City wasn't very far away. Time would tell how this would play out.<br/>But for now, just being in the moment, Tommie felt comfort in choosing him. In being <em> close </em> to him.<br/>She fell asleep beside him, held loosely, knowing that this was the right choice because she made the decision on her own.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Sorry</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tommie woke up early the following morning. Around four.<br/>Trevor was still wrapped around her- likely not having moved all night, save for getting even closer until his forehead was against her back.<br/>Tommie carefully moved out of his reach to leave the bed. <br/>Shedding tears last night left her feeling burned out and dehydrated.<br/>Today, numb.<br/>She went for the sink outside the bathroom door and unwrapped one of the plastic cups to down two full glasses of water. Her reflection in the sickly yellow-toned lighting stared tiredly back. <br/><br/>Who would've known that being told you were loved by someone at rock bottom would be so emotionally taxing?<br/><br/>Tommie went for the unused second bed and put herself under the covers. Eyes on Trevor across the room. Still asleep despite how long ago he'd gotten in bed. <br/>The side effects must have been rough on him, especially since they were combined with lingering side effects from methamphetamine.<br/>She couldn't possibly fall back asleep.<br/>She remembered her notepad in her jacket and picked it up from the floor. On the nightstand between the beds was a pad and pen- which she took to have a spare. She turned on the lamp on her side of the room to start a new note. <br/><br/><em> 'Trevor,<br/></em> <em> You-'<br/><br/></em> He woke with a start, and Tommie jumped at the sound of him gasping. <br/>He sat upright in the bed and coughed. Likely dehydrated as well. He looked over at her, seeming surprised that she was there at all.<br/>"I uh," he started. "I thought you were gonna be gone when I woke up."<br/>Tommie set the stationary in her lap. "So did I."<br/>He moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Head in his hands. "What happened?"<br/>"Nothing new," she told him. "I saw you at a low point. And I decided I couldn't leave you to go it alone."<br/>She had many chances to leave in the past few weeks. She took none of them. Always making up excuses to delay running off. Why did she do that to herself?<br/>"You gotta fuckin' hate me by now," he muttered, muffled by rubbing his hands over his face. <br/>"I should," she nodded. "But I know you did what you did because you were afraid of being left alone. Lots of people do stupid bullshit when they don't want to be alone."<br/>She saw him cringe with that. He seemed to avoid eye contact- embarrassed with himself.<br/>Tommie pushed off her blankets and sat on the side of her own bed. Closer together. <br/>"But that doesn't mean I'm okay with it," she was going to add that what he'd done was manipulative- but lulling him to sleep last night was manipulative of her too. She had used his fragile state against him by pretending to be what he wanted. <br/>"I'm sorry," he murmured, sincerity in his tone. <br/>"I know you don't want me to go," she nodded. "But we can't stay on the road, living like a two-bit Bonnie and Clyde forever. I have a whole life in Los Santos… If things were different, and you could come back with me-"<br/>"You don't have to say that," he interrupted. "You won't have to see me again after I send you home. You can forget all this."<br/>"Do you think I'd just be fine with not knowing what happened to you after I left?" She asked. "Trevor, I’m mad at you, I don't <em> hate </em> you."<br/>He finally looked at her. Genuine astonishment on his face.<br/>"I should," she reiterated. "I should be <em> so </em> fucking excited to be away from you. But all I can think about is how you're gonna live when I'm not around to help. I <em> care </em> about you, even though common sense says I shouldn't. You aren't still the same dirty, violent junkie who got in my car and dragged me into this. That's not how I see you anymore. I like hanging out with you. I like being friends with you. I like <em> you</em>, and I hope life gets better for you because really I think you need it."<br/>Trevor looked at her like he was about to cry again.<br/>"But I really need to go back home. I won't be okay going back unless you're okay without me."<br/>"I'll be fine," he insisted.<br/>"If you love me even <em> slightly </em> like you said, you'll swear on it," she held out her hand, pinky extended. "And if you let me call home and let my mom know I'm okay… I'll stay a few extra days."<br/>He looked at her like she gave him a gift. "You're serious?"<br/>"I got my pinky out, don't I?" She shook the finger for emphasis.<br/>Trevor gratefully linked his pinky in hers. "Okay. Anything you want."<br/><br/>Every time someone loved him, they tried to help him be better.<br/>Whether it was trying to convince him that his lifestyle would kill him if he didn't slow down, cleaning his shithole trailer and insisting that he be good, or trying to see him through his addictions, Trevor always found a way to ruin it. <br/>He wrote Michael's warnings off. Eventually he stopped trying. Now Michael was dead. <br/>He fell back into lazy, dirty, deviant habits after Patricia left. He hadn't heard from her in months. Trevor presumed she was done with him. <br/>He switched addictions when Rosa tried to get him clean. Now there was an invisible wall between them. Their friendship was tainted. <br/>Trevor feared that she might never trust him again. <br/>And if she couldn't trust him, she could never love him.<br/><br/>He circled that thought as she drove them toward Vice City- a series of islands off of the tip of Florida. <br/>He was nauseous the whole way- but he didn't think it was from the pills anymore. Now it was the stressful thought of losing her. <br/>What if she didn't mean any of it? <br/>As soon as she was on that plane, she'd forget all about him. Go home, pick out a piece of shit boyfriend around her own age, get screwed over because he was an asshole, and be totally content with it all because Trevor wouldn't be around to bother her anymore.<br/><br/>“What made you decide on Vice City?” She had to ask him at some point. Plus, she wanted to get him to speak to her again. He’d been largely quiet for the last few days and it was starting to bother her.<br/>If he wanted her to stay, why was he wasting this time?<br/>“Just the farthest place I could think of,” he admitted, watching the coast approach.<br/>They’d driven onto a ferry that would take them and the car to Vice City.<br/>“That’s all?” She asked.<br/>“<em>Why?</em>”<br/>“Just-- my dad lives out here,” Tommie shrugged. “If he’s alive still. I never met him, and I don’t really want to.”<br/>“You wanna use that fake name you like?”<br/>“Probably gonna have to,” Tommie extended her arms, wrists resting on the steering wheel. They’d been on the road for hours. She wanted to stretch her legs. “If I go around using ‘Tommie Vercetti’, I’ll probably get brought to him and shot on sight for using <em> his </em> name out in town.”<br/>Trevor nodded. “‘Shoot first, ask questions later’ type?”<br/>“According to my mom, he’s a ‘shoot first and ask no questions at all’ type. Just solves his problems by blowing things up-- kinda like you,” she looked over with a half-smile.<br/>Trevor looked forward at the approaching coastline again, responding to the comment with a brief smile of his own. “Sounds about right.”<br/>They lapsed into silence, and Tommie sighed and stared out at the sky and sea. Dark clouds in the distance told her it was going to rain soon.<br/><br/>The news stated that rain was expected all week. It was fall, and they were on the south east coast-- which meant it was hurricane season.<br/>The air conditioning in the hotel room contrasted with the humid outside air and condensation formed on their windows.<br/>The Ocean View hotel. They’d splurged on a nice room facing the beach.<br/>“You ever see a hurricane before?” Rosa asked as she looked outside. Though the gray clouds were approaching, lots of people were still out on the beach. Tourists, likely. They’d planned their vacation on a bad week.<br/>“Nah, we stayed in the midwest,” Trevor replied while idly flipping channels on the TV.<br/>“<em>We? </em> ”<br/>“Uh-- me and my friend.”<br/>“You never really told me much about him,” Rosa said and left the window to sit on her bed. “Just that he bailed for ten years and then died.”<br/>“Not much else to say,” The wound was still fresh. He didn’t want to think about Michael. But he didn’t want to hide things from Rosa anymore. She wouldn’t stand for it. “We used to rob shitty little banks in the Midwest to make a living. Did that for about twenty years. My first score, I got ID’d and arrested. Came a long way since then.”<br/>“Yeah?” Rosa chuckled.<br/>“Union Depository,” Trevor nodded.<br/>Her jaw dropped. “The fucking federal reserves!? <em> Damn! </em> I was wondering how you keep being able to pay for shit. With that kind of take, why kill Devin Weston yourself? You could’ve hired someone to do it-- shit, for the right pay, <em> I’d </em> have done it.”<br/>He couldn’t help but smile when he saw her reaction. “Oh, <em> you’d </em> do it?”<br/>“Yeah!” Rosa nodded enthusiastically. “Fuck that guy, everyone knows billionaires don’t have souls or contribute to society. I’d do that shit <em> guilt free. </em> ”<br/>Just when he thought she couldn’t get better. “Really? <em> You </em> with a gun?”<br/>“What, like I’m some perfect, innocent little angel?” She scoffed. “I’m a<em>Vercetti</em>, both my parents are felons and I gotta say: the apple really <em>doesn't</em> fall far from the tree. Backtrack- tell me more about your friend. What was his name, anyway?”<br/>Might as well tell her. “Michael Town-- <em> De Santa</em>. He changed it.”<br/>Her smile dropped. “... Mr. De Santa? Why didn’t you tell me sooner!?”<br/>Trevor held up his hands, defensive. “I didn’t wanna think about it.”<br/>“Trevor, obviously it’s something that hurts you,” she insisted. “It’s better to talk about it. I know it's a whole <em>'thing' </em>for men to not talk about their feelings, but it's better than just letting it fucking <em>rot</em> inside you. And I knew him <em>and</em> his family too for a long fuckin’ time… We could’ve talked it out <em> together… </em> ”<br/>… Fuck.<br/>“So-- you knew I was gonna see Tracey the night you took me?” She asked next.<br/>“I figured it out,” he confirmed.<br/>“Fuck, man,” she sighed, clearly disappointed in him again. Head turned away from him, trying to hide the obvious, distraught look on her face. “She really <em>needed </em> me…”<br/>She might as well have stabbed him. He didn’t even know what to say.<br/><br/>Tommie let out an indignant huff, brows furrowed as she stood up from her bed and stepped into her sandals. “I’m going for a walk.”<br/>Trevor glanced at her, looking upset with himself. She knew that look well. “Are you gonna come back?”<br/>“Only if no one else gets the same idea <em> you </em> did,” she retorted, grabbing a room key and stepping out of the room.<br/>Trevor seemed to shrink in on himself as she passed him.<br/>She froze as soon as the door closed behind her.<br/><em> Fuck… </em><br/>She was over being abducted- so why did she <em>burn</em> him like that?<br/>Sure, Tracey needed her, but… Maybe not as much as Trevor did.<br/>Tracey had other friends. And she had her family.<br/>Trevor had no one. And coincidence led him to someone else who knew his best friend, would eventually care for him, would help him through addiction...<br/>And he felt <em> love </em> for her.<br/>The fact that she hurt him, and even knowingly doing it, felt awful.<br/><br/>The door was pulled open behind her back.<br/>“Rosa-”<br/>She jumped when the door opened and Trevor had almost bumped her on the way out. He had been about to go after her.<br/>But seeing her still there, he froze up. And so did she.<br/>Silent for a long moment, eyes fixed on each other's faces<br/>“Sorry,” she finally said.<br/>Trevor didn’t seem to know what to do or say, again. Just looking at her with sad brown eyes.<br/>She thought her heart was going to break free of her ribs with how it was racing.<br/>Seeing him upset was unbearable.<br/>“I’m sorry,” she moved in and hugged him, arms around his middle.<br/>He settled his arms around her as well, and she could hear his heart pounding in his chest.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Sentiment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em> "You're not going to the police?"<br/>
</em> "No," Tommie confirmed. "I don't want to."<br/>
<em>"The news is saying he killed that billionaire- the one tied in with the private security company," </em> Lita added, likely hoping the sheer scope of how destructive Trevor was would motivate her to get away from him.<br/>
"Doesn't matter to me," Tommie said. <br/>
<em> "He </em> kidnapped <em> you!"<br/>
</em> "You <em> married </em> your kidnapper," Tommie retorted. "<em>And </em> had me."<br/>
Lita silenced. <br/>
It was a true fact that Tommy Vercetti had his men abduct a young vagrant off the streets of Vice City for selling his stolen drugs. And that vagrant was Lola Salamanca- the young woman who would someday be known as Lita Vercetti.<br/>
<em> "I hope you know for sure that he'll let you go," </em> Lita said. <em> "He could change his mind."<br/>
</em> "I'm gonna just have to hope that he doesn't," Tommie sighed, just before the door opened.<br/>
Trevor entered the room, carrying food from the cafe downstairs. He saw that she was on the phone and kept quiet. <br/>
He didn't argue when she said she wanted to call home. <br/>
<em> "Call me if anything goes wrong," </em> Lita continued. <em> "I'll be here. And if he'll let you go out, try to see some of the town… It's where our family started. And I always wished I could be with you when you someday went there."<br/>
</em> "I'll look around when I can," Tommie nodded. <br/>
<em> "And if you happen to hear any word about your father-"<br/>
</em> "I'll let you know," Tommie sat on the side of her bed.<br/>
Trevor watched her talk as he handed over her to-go box. <br/>
Tommie nodded her thanks. <br/>
<em> "Is he there with you?"<br/>
</em> "Yeah, he is."<br/>
<em> "Put me on speaker."</em><br/>
Tommie hit the speaker button. "You're on."<br/>
<em> "Mr. Philips, is it?" </em> Lita asked. <em> "Tommie mentioned you were friends with Michael."<br/>
</em> "I was," Trevor confirmed. Likely on his best behavior <em> solely </em> because Lita was Tommie's mother. <br/>
<em> "It was hard losing him. For all of us. But you decided to take my daughter with you after your little rampage, without knowing who she is or where she comes from because you thought it wouldn't come with consequence. So If she comes home with even a single bruise, I’ll find you and put you dick-first into a wood chipper."<br/>
</em> Trevor looked at Tommie when he heard that. "I'll keep that in mind. She's gonna come back fully intact. If I'm nothing else, I'm a man of my word."<br/>
<em> "You'd better be."<br/>
</em> The call ended, and Trevor passed the phone back to Tommie. "Your mom sounds hot."<br/>
"Shut the fuck up," Tommie snickered.<br/>
<br/>
It had been two whole days since the moment in the doorway. The rain had finally reached the coast and wouldn't stop, and Tommie still felt like her pulse hadn't settled back to normal after that hug. <br/>
It was just a fucking <em> hug </em> , what was she so amped up for?<br/>
She even lost sleep over it. Just hours of trying to clear her mind of him just to doze off.<br/>
"So your family's all bad asses, huh?" He asked in between bites of food. <br/>
"Yeah," Tommie sighed. "Mom was a refugee from Cuba. Ended up homeless after my grandparents died. Dad kinda-sorta kidnapped her and-"<br/>
Trevor cut in. "<em>Them too?</em>"<br/>
"Small world, right?" Tommie continued. "So they have their weird little love-at-first-gun-in-the-face, Mom joins his gang, helps him sell his shit, they fall in love for <em>real</em>, get married, my cute little ass comes along- and she leaves him."<br/>
"Why'd she leave?" He asked through a mouthful of food. <br/>
"She didn't want me to be what they were-- <em> are </em> ," Tommie said. "But I guess it was just in the cards. Being the only child of a convicted murderer makes it hard to make friends as a kid. So I became an angry, aggressive person in turn. And then <em> I </em> start selling drugs. And robbing gas stations. And stealing cars. And generally being a worthless piece of shit… I really earned the name I was given."<br/>
<br/>
Trevor never imagined someone so perfect for him could ever have existed. "You're not a piece of shit."<br/>
Rosa shrugged again. "I feel like one most of the time. I wanted to be something <em>better</em> than just 'my father's daughter', but-"<br/>
"You are, though. You're the best fucking person I ever met," he said. "A <em> million </em> of those dime-a-dozen assholes who ever made you feel bad about yourself aren't even worth just <em>half </em>of you."<br/>
Rosa let out a skeptical chuckle. "That's really sweet of you."<br/>
"Nono, <em> listen,</em>" he insisted, taking on a stern tone. Even setting his food aside. "You're a young girl, doing her best to keep it real in a town of fakes. You're trying to go your own path and do what <em> you </em> want even if some assholes-" he gestured to himself. "-tell you it's not gonna have a payout. You're smart, you're strong, you're confident, compassionate, fucking <em> beautiful</em>, and you got an ass that doesn't quit. I would know- I look at it <em> a lot. </em> You're worth more than any amount of those pricks you knew back home. And that's why I love you to the point where my heart's jackhammering in my chest just having this conversation."<br/>
Rosa stared back in stunned silence, expression unreadable.<br/>
<br/>
In truth, her heart was doing the same.<br/>
She felt so <em> nervous </em> all of the sudden.<br/>
<em> Fuck, man...<br/>
</em> “... Thank you,” she didn’t know what to say. “Nobody’s ever said anything like that about me before-- I mean, except for the part about my ass.”<br/>
“Yeah, well,” Trevor shrugged and went back to his food. Trying to recover from the moment. “I meant it. Especially that part.”<br/>
Tommie smiled. She suddenly didn’t have much of an appetite. Too preoccupied with trying to settle her heart rate. “Hey, um… I’m gonna step outside for a bit. I missed the warm weather.”<br/>
Trevor looked like he thought he’d messed up again. “In the rain?”<br/>
“Yup,” she nodded, getting up and putting her untouched food into the room’s mini fridge. She put on her sandals and, again, grabbed the room key.<br/>
Trevor had gone quiet.<br/>
Tommie could sense that he still thought the same: that she was just trying to be away from him. That he said too much. That he was scaring her off.<br/>
She didn’t want him to think that...<br/>
“I’ll be back in a few,” she reiterated, then headed out.<br/>
<br/>
The rain was starting to slow down. Hopefully it'd stop and she could get some sunlight.<br/>
Tommie had ‘borrowed’ an umbrella from where someone had left it near the hotel’s front doors and took it outside with her.<br/>
Ocean Beach still had plenty of foot traffic- the locals were obviously used to the rain by then. Tourists were still filling up the surf shops and restaurants.<br/>
And Tommie was just on foot, admiring the view of the beach, the lighthouse, the neon signs that were older than her.<br/>
Vice City was pretty- here, at least. Where Tommy Vercetti likely didn’t conduct business.<br/>
Walking by a boutique reminded her that she should get another set of warm weather clothes. What she was wearing now, the outfit she had from Los Santos, was the only set she had.<br/>
She definitely didn’t have enough money, though. And she did try her card one more time when getting fuel on the drive south- and it was declined again.<br/>
They were probably gonna end up stealing again. Hooray.<br/>
<br/>
In the meantime, she was finally starting to relax.<br/>
She decided to go into one of the dumb, tourist-y surf shops on the beach front to kill some time.<br/>
This was the most time alone she’d had in almost two months- yet still all she could think about was him.<br/>
“<em>Stockholm’s nice this time of year</em>,” she muttered under her breath as she eyed the T-shirt designs. All gimmicky, all tasteless.<br/>
“Babe, I love these!” A girl beside her beamed, holding up a set of couple’s T-shirts for her boyfriend to see.<br/>
Tommie stifled a snicker and moved away. Tasteless, indeed.<br/>
She happened upon some keychains.<br/>
Some with blank picture frames, some saying “I heart Vice City”, and every other brand of typical tacky beach-themed memorabilia.<br/>
She found one that stood out. Black background, neon palm trees, neon lines shaped like the hotels on the beachfront. And matching lettering that read ‘Ocean Beach’.<br/>
Tommie glanced around at her surroundings, making sure that nobody was looking and no security cameras could see her- and slipped the keychain into her pocket before leaving the store.<br/>
It wasn’t much, but she could give it to her mom. For sentimental value.<br/>
<br/>
She found that the room was empty when she returned.<br/>
Trevor must have gone out too.<br/>
Tommie dropped her closed umbrella on the floor close to the exit and headed for the bed. Ready to wrap up in a blanket thanks to the abrupt chill of the room.<br/>
She was out for forty minutes, where'd he even go?<br/>
<br/>
She heard the door open.<br/>
"Hey," she greeted. "Where'd you--"<br/>
Trevor cleared the corner of the wall shared with the bathroom, and Tommie saw that he was soaked through from the rain. Holding something behind his back. <br/>
"Shit, man," she got up to grab a towel out of the bathroom for him. "Did you go swimming, or...?"<br/>
He took a rained on half-dozen roses from behind his back.<br/>
Tommie needed a second to process it.<br/>
“I thought you might like these,” he said. “I didn’t know what color you like.”<br/>
She took them and admired them for a moment. “They’re nice.” A mix of pink and red. “But look at <em>you</em>. You look like a drowned cat.” She set the flowers aside and moved around him to grab a towel out of the bathroom.<br/>
“You don’t need to mother me, y’know,” he grumbled, accepting the towel and pulling a chair aside to sit. “It’s weird.”<br/>
“I’m not mothering, I just <em>care</em>,” she replied, then picked up the roses and sat on her bed to look at them in the light of the window. “You were out in the rain getting these for me, it’d be kinda fucked up if I didn’t care… Thanks, by the way.”<br/>
“I could’ve done better,” Trevor muttered. “Place was fuckin’ sold outta everything.”<br/>
“No, they’re great,” she insisted. “I’m just kinda surprised, y’know? I didn’t expect it… Nobody’s ever given me flowers before.”<br/>
“They should,” Trevor flatly replied as he dried off.<br/>
Stated like it was a fact.<br/>
A tight feeling in Tommie’s chest was her heart reminding her that it hadn’t calmed as much as she’d thought.<br/>
It lingered as she observed him in his natural state. Calm, albeit a bit grumpy looking at being soaked through by the rain.<br/>
She’d be going home in a few days.<br/>
This moment was how she most wanted to remember him. A sweet older man who adored her for who she was and chose to better himself because of her showing him he had worth.<br/>
If he was twenty years younger…<br/>
No. That part didn’t matter.<br/>
<br/>
Impulse got her to stand up.<br/>
Trevor looked at her when he heard the roses’ plastic sleeve crinkle on the bed, and waited to see what she was doing when she came closer to him.<br/>
She stood <em>very</em> close. Between his knees. Hand reaching out to caress the side of his face.<br/>
He looked up at her in anticipation, realized, and abruptly stood up. Towering over her and making her withdraw her hand in a small, nervous flinch.<br/>
Trevor carefully took her hand, fingers loosely wrapped around her wrist as he guided her palm to the side of his face in appreciation for the touch. He could feel her heart racing with the pads of his fingers, and Tommie realized it when he let go of her wrist to place his hand over hers, fingers lacing together. His hands were cold. Tommie felt the pins and needles of goosebumps on her arms and legs.<br/>
Gaze locked on each other until both sets of brown eyes closed as they moved together.<br/>
Their lips met in the middle. Soft. Testing. Becoming firm and needful with ease, as though this weren’t their first time.<br/>
Tommie felt high, mind numbed to all but the kiss.<br/>
Trevor was instantly addicted from the very first taste of her. Hands settling on her hips and pulling her in closer until there wasn’t any room between them. Tommie responded in kind with her arms up around his shoulders.<br/>
Both lost in the motions- until housekeeping opened the door, saw them, and immediately left in one swift movement. Gone before Trevor or Tommie could even turn their heads to see who was entering.<br/>
Did they even knock? Would either of the room’s occupants even have noticed?<br/>
“<em>Fuck</em>,” Trevor grunted. Frustrated.<br/>
Tommie let slip a giggle at that. “Sorry.”<br/>
Trevor reluctantly allowed her to pull back. Much colder now that the warmth of her body had left him.<br/>
She, however, shivered. The front of her shirt had absorbed water from his clothes. “<em>Fuck,</em> you’re cold.”<br/>
Trevor managed a smile. Contented, despite the interruption. “Still got you wet.”<br/>
Tommie smiled back. “Fuck you.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Third Prize</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Trevor decided that a shower would help him warm up. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Rosa offered to take his wet clothes to the laundry facilities in the lobby.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>After that, a comfortable silence followed.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor felt like he was pleasantly high when he stood under the hot water in the shower.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She kissed him... She actually fucking did it!<br/>
</span>
  <span>On her own decision- he didn't even need to ask her to. <br/>
</span>
  <span>The flowers really worked. Those bullshit Vinewood love scenes might not have been such bullshit after all!<br/>
</span>
  <span>Holy shit, is this how being loved back for real is supposed to be? So </span>
  <em>
    <span>energizing?<br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <span>He wanted to do more. To </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>more. To make her want to share more of whatever she felt…<br/>
<br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie hummed contentedly as she waited for Trevor's clothes to finish in the wash cycle.<br/>
</span>
  <span>Sitting nearby with one of the books he'd given her. <br/>
</span>
  <span>He'd spontaneously gotten her books because he observed her reading. And roses because he knew her as </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rosa.</span>
  </em>
  <span> <br/>
</span>
  <span>Very personal and thoughtful--- </span>
  <em>
    <span>loving. <br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <span>It'd been about two months since Los Santos. Trevor was quick in deciding that he loved her, and that was a little worrying. He put her on a pedestal; and realistically, that would only set him up for disappointment. But Tommie couldn't deny that it felt nice for someone to be so affectionate and grateful for her. No one ever made her </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> loved like this. Not even close.<br/>
</span>
  <span>Nobody else even came close to the intensity of just the one kiss. <br/>
</span>
  <span>She felt drunk afterward.<br/>
</span>
  <span>Even just remembering the look of anticipation on his face was enough to give her chills again.<br/>
</span>
  <span>What if they </span>
  <em>
    <span>weren’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>interrupted?</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She probably would’ve just… At least one time. Just to see what it was like...<br/>
</span>
  <span>The memory of the first time she heard him moaning her name through a door came to the surface.<br/>
</span>
  <span>She had knots in her stomach thinking about it.<br/>
</span>
  <span>Shit, she saw him naked once too. She saw </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the brief second before she turned away from him. Though she couldn't clearly remember...<br/>
</span>
  <span>"Horny bitch," she reprimanded herself, shook the thought out of her head and went back to her book. <br/>
<br/>
</span>
  <span>The rest of the day had been uneventful. The two had been quiet through the rest of the evening and into the next day, unsure of how to approach a conversation about the day before. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>But they at least felt good about it. No noticeable regrets.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Rosa hadn’t yet said anything about when exactly she wanted to plan her flight out- did she want to stay longer?</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor didn’t mention her flight home either, out of fear that she would suggest to leave </span>
  <em>
    <span>today</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Still, he knew the time was coming. And he still had so much he wanted to do with her.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Do you uh--” Fuck, what was he doing? He hadn’t even thought out the second half of what he was asking. “You wanna do something?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Like what?” Rosa asked from where she was combing her wet hair in front of the mirror. She’d just left the bathroom after a long shower.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Go out in town, see-- stuff?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She appeared from around the corner, still combing. “I mean, if there’s stuff to see, we might as well. I think maybe two or three days from now would be a good time to head back to Los Santos. The weather’s supposed to be clearer bythen.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor’s heart sank in his chest.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie could see a look of dejection on his face, though he masked it well.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Not well enough to hide from her.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I mean, I’m not in a rush,” she added. “We have time.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah,” Trevor agreed in a subdued tone, eyes on the floor. “Plenty.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She wanted to tell him she was sorry.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Every time she thought about having to go, she remembered him saying that everyone he cared about left him, and she wanted to apologize for being one of them.<br/>
</span>
  <span>“Right,” she agreed, in hopes of lightening the mood. “Plenty of time… So we can keep the </span>
  <em>
    <span>first </span>
  </em>
  <span>date nice and casual.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor looked up at her, brows raised in a clear look of surprise.<br/>
<br/>
</span>
  <span>“So are we here because we’re casing the place, or…?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I just wanted to see it,” Tommie replied.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The mansion was the biggest on the island, just like Lita had always told her. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Huge, white, well lit to probably make sure nobody uninvited was on the premises, a noticeable helicopter perched on the roof.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“So what is it?” Trevor asked.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“The Vercetti Estate. My dad’s place, if he’s still alive,” Tommie replied.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Why come here if you never wanna see him?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I dunno,” she sighed. “ Just thought I'd see what I was missing out on… Ugh, fuck it, let’s move on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where to next?” Trevor asked as he took the car out of park and moved them away from the mansion. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Before this, they went out to see a movie, got something to eat, and drank cheap coffee while they watched the sun go down on the ocean.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I hear they have a bitchin’ golf course,” Tommie shrugged.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The tentative plan was to sneak in after closing, hotwire a couple of golf carts, and fuck up the grass as much as possible. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Which, luckily, was easy.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The golf course’s gates were closed long before they even drove up.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“So how do we get in?” Trevor wondered. “We could hop the fence with some effort… Maybe scrape our way through the bushes…”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie noticed a bridge over the road up ahead, connecting the two halves of the course that took up the whole island.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I think I see our way up,” she noted, pointing to the bridge.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The hills on either side of the road were steep, but with a little effort they were able to tread their way up to one end of the bridge. Narrow gaps between the rail and the bushes provided an easy way in. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>It was easy to find the little parking lot of golf carts after that.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor even showed her how to hotwire one, and observed as she did the same with a second cart.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Hey, you wanna race?” She asked. “From here to…” She peered out in the darkened distance. Not a lot of light on the green. Just around where the gravel road was. Except for- “The driving range over there?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“You’re on,” Trevor got into his cart as she got behind the wheel of hers. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie hit the throttle before they could even call a ‘go’.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“That’s not fucking fair!” Trevor shouted after her as he followed suit.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“We never established any rules!” Tommie called back with a laugh. Her golf cart started to slow down, and came to a stop-- because the battery was dead. “Oh, what the fuck!?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor pulled up beside her with a smug look. “So about those rules.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She rolled her eyes. “It died. Must be karma.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah, or, maybe it’s me </span>
  <em>
    <span>winning</span>
  </em>
  <span> despite a disadvantage,” Trevor smirked. “Does the little lady need a ride the rest of the way?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“‘The little lady’s gonna choose to </span>
  <em>
    <span>walk </span>
  </em>
  <span>if you call her ‘the little lady’ again,” Tommie replied and moved around to the passenger side of the cart. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor jerked the cart forward as she was about to get in.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” She laughed, moving to get in again.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Only for Trevor to move the cart forward again.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Ass</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she got in and nudged him with her elbow.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“No one likes a sore loser,” Trevor teased, and continued to head toward the driving range.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>The driving range itself was a two-level structure facing out to the ocean.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Decently lit by a few lights, as well as the glow from downtown across the water.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor and Rosa sat side-by-side on the ledge above the water. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>A peaceful, still moment. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Lightning in the distance. Probably more approaching rain.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“So what did I win from the race?” He asked, eyes fixed on the glimmering lights of downtown Vice City.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Well, what do you want?” Rosa asked, looking out as well.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“You already know,” he muttered.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Rosa went quiet for a moment. “I know, Trev…”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>He thought his heart might have stopped when she moved her hand over so it was on top of his.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“But I can’t stay.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“What’s in Los Santos that you can’t find anywhere else?” He asked.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“My family, my friends…” </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>He felt the same sinking in his chest. Icy cold. “Right… I can’t do that.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Are you sure you can’t come back with me?” She asked.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Do you actually want me to?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“How else can I be there to make sure you’re okay?” She looked over at him with a sad smile and squeezed his hand.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor was sad, of course; but in the moment, everything was right. He could remember this, and it would have to be good enough. “... I love you.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Rosa moved closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder, letting go of his hand to wrap her arm around him. Trevor did the same.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Even though she didn’t say the words back, he knew </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> was there.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>They stayed that way for a long while, until the rain started to roll in.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>A few odd drops at first, then quickly escalating into a moderate shower.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie and Trevor rushed for the golf cart, only to find that the battery for this one had also died.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“How did it die so quick?” Tommie wondered. “We didn’t take it that far.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Left it running,” Trevor muttered.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie gave him a look.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I didn’t know how charged up it was!”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>She sighed. “Let’s start walkin’ back.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>"You'll get wet."<br/>
</span>
  <span>"Not the end of the world," she quipped, getting out from under the golf cart's roof.<br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor followed, and they started the walk back toward where they entered. <br/>
</span>
  <span>This was one of the best dates she'd ever been on. Rain and all. <br/>
</span>
  <span>Comfortable, intimate, and private. <br/>
</span>
  <span>And fun. Because they already knew each other pretty well, there wasn't any pressure to perform for each other. They could just enjoy the night.<br/>
</span>
  <span>And Tommie wanted nothing more than to just enjoy it for as long as possible.</span>
  <span><br/>
<br/>
</span>
  <span>"If I can't give you first prize, I can at least give you second," she told him, when they came back to their access point. The hill they hiked up earlier was now slippery from the rain, and Tommie slid down, keeping low to the ground so she wouldn’t fall into the mud.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor was much less graceful, barely bending his knees on the way down and stumbling when he reached the asphalt. "Yeah, </span>
  <em>
    <span>second </span>
  </em>
  <span>prize to you going away sounds </span>
  <em>
    <span>great.</span>
  </em>
  <span>"<br/>
</span>
  <span>Tommie scoffed back at that, hiding an arrogant smirk as she led the way back to the car. "Fine, </span>
  <em>
    <span>don't</span>
  </em>
  <span> kiss me, then."</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Trevor followed close behind. "Wait, no- I want that."</span>
</p><p><span>"Offer's expired,” she gave a dramatic, wistful sigh. “Now you win </span><em><span>third </span></em><span>prize of driving us back to the hotel and doing our laundry."</span><span><br/>
</span><span>They got into the car and Trevor rolled his eyes for her to see. Clearly pouting.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“No one likes a sore winner,” Tommie teased, gently nudging him with her elbow and leaning against the center armrest. Uncaring that their clothes were drenching the seats. Of course she wouldn't leave him with such a lame prize. Just being cold and wet was all she could really think of at the moment.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“No one likes getting </span><em><span>third </span></em><span>prize for being </span><em><span>first</span></em><span> place,” Trevor briefly looked over at her before turning back forward to start the car.</span><span><br/>
</span><span><br/>
</span><span>After getting back to the hotel and drying their clothes, Trevor came back to the room to see that Rosa had gotten into her bed and had already fallen asleep. Lights on and all, on top of the blankets.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Trevor set her clothes at the foot of her bed and turned off the lights, sitting on his own mattress and watching her for a moment through the dark.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Calm, peaceful… And fucking cute as hell…<br/>
</span><span>He wrestled with an idea- he could just kiss her. She was asleep, she wouldn't even notice.<br/>
</span><span>No, that's fucking creepy. Don't do that. <br/>
</span><span>A forehead kiss is </span><em><span>less</span></em><span> creepy. <br/>
</span><span>Still creepy, though. <br/>
</span><span>What's the least creepy way to show physical affection when someone was asleep?<br/>
</span><span>Rosa turned onto her side, dark hair falling over her face as it always did. <br/>
</span><span>Trevor didn't hesitate to carefully brush it back over her shoulder- just to see her face again. <br/>
</span><span>He thought his heart was pounding loud enough to wake her up. But she stayed asleep.<br/>
</span><span>The part of his mind that controlled logic turned off- no longer able to stop himself.<br/>
</span><span>Trevor carefully leaned over her and put his lips to her forehead.<br/>
</span><span>Creepy or not, it was exhilarating. The same energizing rush as before. Similar to the excitement of a successful take after a bank job. Only </span><em><span>better</span></em><span>. <br/>
</span><span>He would do anything to have this all the time. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>He didn’t realize he’d woken her up until he pulled back and her head tilted up toward him.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Trevor had been about to explain himself- only to be unable to speak entirely when she kissed him on her own accord. He wasn’t about to argue with a good thing. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>She sat up just enough to wrap her arms around his shoulders, and Trevor held tightly onto her like the last time. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>Rosa tilted her body until she was on her back, and Trevor followed. Lying halfway on top of her as they carried on. Eventually shifting to putting himself between her legs, one of his hands dragged down her side to the hem of her shirt. Slipping underneath and starting to move upward.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“Mm-” she broke the kiss in quiet protest. “Not now.”</span><span><br/>
</span><span>“Right…” If she were anybody else, he would’ve been disappointed-- annoyed, even. But he didn’t want to rush her. And ‘not now’ meant later possibilities. She was worth the wait. And even just this moment was enough to make sure he’d sleep well tonight.</span><span><br/>
</span><span>Trevor started to pull back from her to go to bed, but she stopped him in an instant. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>“Stay.”</span><span><br/>
</span><span>He thought he’d misheard her, and hesitated to make sure she’d said it, before moving himself to lay next to her on the empty side of her bed. </span><span><br/>
</span><span>Rosa turned over and laid her arm over him, her head rested against his shoulder as she dozed off again.</span><span></span><br/>
<span>He’d never felt so loved before.</span><br/>
Third prize wasn't so bad.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Junior</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tommie abruptly woke up a few hours later, still comfortably wrapped around Trevor. <br/>One eye peeking open to see him still sleeping. A warm, calloused hand was set on top of the arm she had across his chest, which rose and fell with each deep, even breath.<br/>She didn't lift her head to see his face, but she could picture how he looked. Peaceful, calm-- <em> cute </em>, if she were honest with herself. <br/>Trevor was cute, in his own strange way.<br/>She found that the corner of her mouth was raised into a crooked smile at the thought, and she closed her eye again to simply appreciate the stillness of the moment.<br/><br/>She was young, and hadn't had many relationships-- certainly none where her partner would happily hold her for this long without trying to brazenly steer it toward sex. None that said they loved her without ulterior motives. None that had been <em> this </em> appreciative of just a few hugs or kisses.<br/><em>None </em>like Trevor.<br/>He ended up meaning something to her in such a short amount of time.<br/>She didn't want this feeling to go away.<br/>She didn't want <em> him </em>to go away.<br/><br/>Tommie absently moved her arm out of his grip, causing him to wake slightly and turn his head toward her when her hand settled on the side of his face.<br/>He was too sleepy to question why she kissed him again. Only happy to be woken up to it. Even lazily pulling her closer to do it some more.<br/>Tommie moved a knee across his body, shifting her weight so that she was straddling him as she stole more kisses. No thinking, no worrying, just doing. Enjoying. Like this was an extension of last night's fun.<br/>"Thought you said 'not now'," Trevor yawned as her lips briefly left his to move to his cheek. Hands settled on her hips. <br/>"I was half asleep," she shrugged.<br/>"<em>I'm </em> half asleep," he muttered. Not to mention that he did still have some lingering side effects. The last couple of days weren't so bad, but mornings were definitely the worst part of the day. Rosa may not have realized that.<br/>He probably couldn't get it up right now anyway. Too woozy. Too drowsy. Sluggish.<br/><br/>What Tommie <em> did </em>realize, however, was that between the two of them, it was unlikely that either of them had a rubber. She certainly didn't carry any.<br/>Yet here she was, just about ready to screw him without one anyway. The option she <em> never </em>picked because she was taught explicitly to practice safe sex. <br/>Sure, she wanted to 'try it', but… How much, exactly?<br/><em>Too much. </em> It kept coming to the forefront of her thoughts. <br/>"Right, sorry," she would let him rest some more. There was still time. No need to rush.<br/>She started to move back into her spot beside him. But before she could get off of him, he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her into a tight embrace. "You stay right there," he protested in a quiet murmur against her shoulder. "I like this."<br/><br/>Trevor eventually fell back asleep, and Tommie had to get up and stretch her legs- given that they'd started to lock up from the position she'd been in. <br/>She didn't feel like she could sleep anymore, so she grabbed her previously dried warm weather clothes and changed in the bathroom before going out for a walk.<br/>Her sandals still had grass stuck to them, and she tried to tap them clean on the elevator's floor on the descent.<br/>It was humid outside the hotel room, she was glad she got this new pair of shoes when they arrived- she couldn't imagine how uncomfortably hot she'd be if she had to wear boots in this town.<br/>She really missed low humidity.<br/><br/>The early morning sunshine hit hard when she stepped outside; and according to the big TV screen in the hotel lobby, it wouldn't last all day. Soon to be replaced with more rain.<br/>Tommie would have to enjoy the few hours of real daylight while it was available. The idea now was to walk down the street to a nearby restaurant and bring back some breakfast, and they'd figure out what to do later.<br/><br/>The Front Page Café just down the street looked like a good place to do just that.<br/>Tommie waited outside for her order, seated in one of their patio seats and people watching. <br/>Families out for breakfast, college students with Bloody Marys to nurse hangovers, men and women in business attire presumably in a meeting. <br/>It was like a reminder that the world was still bigger than just her and Trevor stuck in ever-changing hotel rooms.<br/><br/>This trip was coming to a close.<br/><br/>When she went back to LS, she would go back to everyday life like she never left to begin with.<br/>Tommie felt an ache in her chest when her conscience was cruel enough to tell her that all of this may as well have been for nothing. She wasn't coming back better, or rested, or at peace with her own demons--<br/>She was going back alone.<br/>And would have to live with the constant worry over Trevor's survival.<br/><br/>She tried to shake off the lingering gloom on the way back to the hotel. <br/>She really fucked herself over by letting herself care so much about him. <br/>A few weeks ago he was just the smelly junkie who took her for a ride.<br/>Now he was <em> Trevor </em>. <br/>Someone who mattered. Who she wanted to see get better.<br/>She never gave this much of a shit about a man before-- what the fuck happened???<br/>She had to stop and turn down an alleyway on her walk back- hand over her chest as if she could manually steady her heart before she saw him again.<br/>This was just too much…<br/>She leaned against the building at her back, eyes closed, taking a few deep breaths-<br/>A hand wrapped around her arm and jerked her deeper into the alley.<br/>Tommie only got a glimpse of the man who pulled her before a rag was shoved over her nose and mouth by a second attacker<br/>She'd seen enough movies to know that it was chloroform- and she tried to hold her breath as she tried to wrench herself out of their grips. <br/>The one trying to drug her wrapped his arm around her neck to keep her still, and Tommie resorted to sinking her teeth into his arm until she tasted blood.<br/>Only free for a second until she was hit over the back of the head and blacked out.<br/><br/>Trevor was a little disappointed to see that Rosa wasn't still beside him when he woke up. <br/>He vaguely remembered another kiss earlier that morning. He wasn't sure if he dreamed that.<br/>He sat up in the bed and saw that her shoes were gone, as was a room key. Her backpack was still lying beside the bed. She must have gone to get food.<br/>So he waited. <br/>And waited.<br/>And waited...<br/><br/>When Tommie came to, she was sitting upright and unable to move her arms from behind her back.<br/>The plastic zip tie was digging into her wrists<br/>And she couldn’t see anything. Flecks of light through woven material over her eyes told her that there was a blindfold on her.<br/>She tried to stand, and found that the same zip tie around her wrists was also connected to the back of the chair.<br/>“Good, you’re up,” an unrecognizable voice greeted. Deep, bored, with an unmistakable hint of age.<br/>“What-- Who-” Tommie didn’t know what to ask first. Abduction wasn’t exactly a first for her, but this was very different than last time.<br/>“You’re not asking the questions. I am,” he replied. Tommie heard a creaking sound- leather. A chair he got up from. “So who do you work for? You’re young, I doubt you’re a cop or a fed. What about your friend? The old man.”<br/>“Look, I dunno <em> what </em> the fuck you’re talking about,” she replied. “What did I even <em> do? </em> ”<br/>She heard him sigh, then there was the sound of something heavy being moved off of a nearby surface.<br/>“Alright,” the man said. “Since you ‘dunno’, maybe you can answer this…”<br/>He touched her knee with a cold metal object.<br/>“Which one is harder to live without? Your left leg or your right?”<br/>“Fuck-” she gasped. “Come on, I don’t know what the fuck you want! I don’t work for anyone, I’m-- I’m a missing person!”<br/>“Mmhm,” he hummed, not caring whether that was true or not. “Look, sweetheart, you lost your chance to cooperate and I don’t like to play with my food that much. Pick a leg, or I’ll pick for you.”<br/>“I’m a missing person!” She insisted. “From Los Santos, it was all over the news two months ago! You could just-- you’ll get a reward if I get home in one piece! Look me up online, I’m Tommie Vercetti!”<br/>A moment of tense silence before the man broke it. “Bullshit.”<br/>“I am! Search online, there’s gotta be a picture of me!” She waited for whatever he was holding to come crashing into one of her shins, but it never came.<br/>The stranger was likely trying to fact check her.<br/>“So you were named after your old man.”<br/>“Yeah,” she admitted. She wouldn’t imply that she’d never met him. “And he’d kill you just for taking me, let alone threatening to break my legs.”<br/>“Yeah, probably.”<br/>The blindfold was haphazardly pulled off of her head and Tommie squinted against the light of the room. Eyes slowly adjusting, she tried to get a look at who she’d been talking to.<br/>He was a tall, gray older man with a weathered face and dark brown eyes. She recognized him from pictures she’d seen online.<br/>Tommie’s eyes went wide. “<em>No fuckin' way </em> .”<br/>Tommy Vercetti replied with a shrug. “Nice to meet you too, <em> Junior </em>.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. A Favor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had no way of knowing how long she’d been gone.<br/>
When did she leave?<br/>
Even if it was right before he woke up, two hours elapsing was too long.<br/>
Something had to have happened.<br/>
In a sudden panic over the horrible possibilities, Trevor rushed out of the hotel room.<br/>
No plan. No means of contacting her.<br/>
By the time he reached the outside, the streets were busy with strangers taking advantage of the clear weather while it lasted.<br/>
He started down the street, unsure of where to even begin-- and froze when he saw a group of homeless men gathered around something in the alley beside the hotel.</p><p>Part of him was certain that it was going to be a body.<br/>
Striding into the alley, he shoved one of them aside to see that they were only dividing up a couple to-go boxes of cold but otherwise good food.<br/>
She went to get them something to eat.<br/>
One of her sandals was lying on the ground a few feet away.<br/>
“Back off motherfucker!” The one he’d shoved came back at him with a punch.<br/>
But Trevor ducked away from it and wrapped a hand around his throat, pushing the stranger against one of the buildings on either side of them. “There was a girl here. Where the fuck is she?”<br/>
“We didn’t see a girl, man,” one of the other men told him, not looking for a fight. “We got here five minutes ago and this was just sitting here… It’s cold. Like it’s been a couple hours. But nobody was around.”<br/>
<br/>
“You look just like her.”<br/>
“You couldn’t tell sooner?”<br/>
“It’s the hair,” Tommy told her. “You got my hair. Threw me off.”<br/>
“Psh...”<br/>
“The angry look in your eye is mine too.”<br/>
“ <em> That </em> makes more sense,” Tommie replied. “You look like an asshole so I guess Resting Bitch Face is hereditary.. What were the fucking theatrics for?” Tommie grumbled, abandoning the sandal she still had now that she saw she’d lost the other. Again. Bad luck with those. Might as well wear some high tops or something- whatever was lightweight and wouldn’t fall off again. “You could’ve just, I dunno, <em> said ‘hi’ </em> like a normal human being.”<br/>
“Didn’t know who you were,” Tommy replied and led her out to the back of the mansion on Starfish Island. Right on the water, nothing but glittering blue seas and and only <em> some </em> of Vice City in view. “My guys saw you and your friend on my security cameras. I assumed you were FIB.”<br/>
“ <em> Bold assumption </em> ,” Tommie retorted, then remembered that she’d left Trevor. “Shit! He’s still at the hotel…! Oh fuck, he probably thinks I left-”<br/>
“What’s the panic for?” Tommy asked. “Just call him.”<br/>
“We don’t have phones,” she replied. He got rid of both of ‘em before we left San Andreas. “And he’s--” she sighed. “... He needs me.”<br/>
Her father turned to her, appalled. “That’s your boyfriend? He looks like he’s my age.”<br/>
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Tommie groaned. “It’s a long fucking story. I gotta go back to the hotel. I just hope he’s still there.”<br/>
“Say no more,” Tommy took his phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text.<br/>
“What are you doing?”<br/>
“I’m getting him for you.”<br/>
“Don’t just ‘get him’, send me back!”<br/>
“Where, back to <em> Stockholm? </em> ” Tommy waved off the request. “I wanna get a look at the guy.”<br/>
Tommie groaned and turned away to tiredly rub her eyes.<br/>
Then had a thought.<br/>
She looked back to her father. “... Can I ask you for a favor?”<br/>
<br/>
He’d wandered the island for hours before he thought to go back to the hotel.<br/>
Maybe he’d overreacted. Maybe it wasn’t her shoe he’d seen.<br/>
Maybe she was in the room. Safe and wondering where he’d been all day.<br/>
The nausea pulling at the back of his throat told him that wasn’t likely, but it was still a comforting thought.<br/>
She wouldn’t just leave him. She had so many chances to before but she chose to stay, why would she leave now when things were good?<br/>
When he <em> knew </em> that she felt for him.<br/>
“Hey!”<br/>
A voice made him pause on his way up the hotel’s front steps.<br/>
Even if it wasn’t directed at him, it made him turn.<br/>
And there were two men getting out of a Landstalker addressing him.<br/>
They didn’t <em> look </em> like cops or feds, but he couldn’t be too sure.<br/>
He didn’t like the idea of having to leave Vice City without Rosa. And he would have to get away from them and lay low somewhere else in town if he wanted to stick to that plan.<br/>
“You’re lookin’ for the girl, right?” The guy who got out of the front passenger seat asked. The one who had driven had circled around the vehicle. As if ready to back up his passenger.<br/>
“What girl?” Trevor asked back. He would admit to nothing. He wouldn’t sell her out. It would only make getting her home take longer.<br/>
“Mr. Vercetti’s girl,” the stranger replied. “She’s at the mansion. We were told to bring you there.”<br/>
Trevor didn’t buy that for a second. “Yeah, bullshit.”<br/>
The driver rolled his eyes and approached Trevor. “Look, we’re bringing you there. An order’s an order and we don’t wanna piss off the big man.”<br/>
Trevor let out an irate sigh. This was not what he needed…<br/>
Fuck it.<br/>
He threw a punch that landed in the driver’s jaw, and the man was unconscious before he hit the ground.<br/>
He saw the passenger reaching into the vehicle, presumably for a weapon.<br/>
But Trevor moved quicker, grabbing the open car door and slamming it on the stranger’s head twice before shoving him out of the vehicle.<br/>
He moved to the driver’s seat and took off toward Starfish Island.<br/>
Even if Rosa <em> wasn’t </em> at the estate, Trevor was sure Tommy Vercetti would want to know that she was missing somewhere in town.<br/>
<br/>
“Hey, get my girl some shoes,” Tommy called to one of his lackeys, then looked to his daughter. “What size?”<br/>
“Uh-” Tommie blinked. “Eight?”<br/>
“Size eight!” He added, just as his subordinate took off to complete the task.<br/>
“Must be fun just ordering people around,” Tommie said and sat down on the armchair behind his desk, eyeing the wall of security monitors.<br/>
“It has its moments,” her father agreed before sitting down at his desk. Chair reclining as he leaned back, turning toward her. “How’s life in Los Santos? How’s Lita?”<br/>
“Mom’s okay,” she replied. Lita wouldn’t be thrilled to know Tommie had met her father. Not after twenty years of trying to make sure she didn’t grow up to be a mirror image of the man. Even if she loved him enough to never remarry, she didn’t want this life for their child.<br/>
Yet here she was anyway. Half of a ripoff Bonnie and Clyde duo, all the way across the continent, hanging out with her dad.<br/>
<em> Apple, meet Tree. </em><br/>
She didn’t want to disclose too much… Did it even matter anymore?<br/>
She turned back to the wall of monitors and took a cursory glance at each one. “This how you spotted us?”<br/>
She didn’t hear Tommy’s answer, too fixated on a screen toward the bottom. Where a vehicle skidded to a stop in front of the mansion. The driver, with a recognizable frame and stride exited and headed up the front steps.<br/>
“He’s here,” she got out of her seat and darted for the office door, a little too eager to see Trevor.<br/>
<br/>
He entered the mansion when she was almost fully down the stairs, and hurried forward to meet her at the bottom- where they clung tightly to each other.<br/>
Tommy observed from the top of the stairs.<br/>
‘Trevor’ was ancient compared to his daughter. But she didn’t seem bothered by that.<br/>
It was actually kinda nice to see the two be so delighted to see each other. Pulling apart only to end up holding tighter onto each other again.<br/>
… It was a little unsettling to see a kiss between that huge of an age gap, but he didn’t say anything about it.<br/>
<br/>
After what felt like hours of interrogation-- and an apology for beating the shit out of two of Vercetti’s guys, Trevor finally felt at ease with Rosa next to him.<br/>
Sitting together in the covered area of the back of the mansion as a gentle rain fell.<br/>
“It’s not perfect, but it’s something,” Rosa told him.<br/>
“It’s something,” Trevor agreed.<br/>
She had talked her dad into letting Trevor stay in the mansion under his protection until the search died down.<br/>
Meanwhile, he would send her back to Los Santos on his own dollar.<br/>
Not ideal.<br/>
But it was something.<br/>
Vercetti had sent some people to get their things from their hotel room. They didn’t have to lift a finger.<br/>
And Rosa was going home in the early morning.<br/>
Time had run out.<br/>
<br/>
Her hand found his on the concrete, and she laced her fingers between his.<br/>
“I wanna give you my address before I go,” she said. “So you can write. If you wanna write.”<br/>
“I can do you one better,” Trevor replied. “I’ll get a couple burner phones and we can talk.”<br/>
“I’d like that,” she nodded, before they went quiet again.<br/>
She wanted to finish the goodbye letter she meant to write for him.<br/>
But maybe she shouldn’t. It felt so final.<br/>
“Let’s go inside,” she told him.<br/>
<br/>
The rest of the evening had been quiet talks of what the future might look like.<br/>
Tommie constantly reminded Trevor that she needed to know he’d be okay without her.<br/>
And Trevor numbly insisting that he would be fine.<br/>
It was the last night to sleep in a room together- so they were tightly packed together in one of the unused bedrooms at the Vercetti estate.<br/>
The day had felt long and emotionally draining- on both of them.<br/>
Tommie watched Trevor start to doze off. Peaceful. Cute. Just like earlier that morning.<br/>
Except for one thing…<br/>
She pressed a kiss to his cheek to wake him, and his arm tightened around her.<br/>
"You asleep?"<br/>
"No," he muttered.<br/>
"Good." She shifted to climb on top of him again, just like earlier.<br/>
Trevor was taken aback for a moment. "This happening?"<br/>
"Definitely," she quietly agreed and hunched over to kiss him. <br/>
Trevor returned the gesture with enthusiasm. Even a sense of urgency when he wrapped his arms around her back to keep her close- eventually sliding them down to her hips as they carried on.<br/>
She only pulled back to pull her shirt over her head.<br/>
He abruptly sat upright, keeping Tommie anchored to the spot in his lap while he copied. He threw his shirt carelessly across the room and kissed her again, lips moving down to her neck while he unhooked her bra.<br/>
Tommie bit her lips together to stifle a sharp gasp when Trevor’s mouth covered one of her nipples. Grateful for every bit he could touch.<br/>
She didn’t even know what to do with herself, but even with a blank mind, her body acted on instinct. She moved her hips slowly and deliberately against his lap, and felt his fingers tighten around her waist in reply. Good.<br/>
She did it again and better felt him through their clothes. Already getting hard.<br/>
A gasp when he suddenly flipped them over, now lying between her legs on the sheets. He propped himself up until he found out comfortable position to slide his hand down her shorts.<br/>
Tommie clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle an involuntary moan when his fingers found her clit. <br/>
"So wet already…" He muttered the words against her stomach.<br/>
Tommie couldn't register what he said, struggling to keep quiet. Thighs twitching with each minuscule movement of his fingers. Practically on edge already. <br/>
"Fuck… Kiss me-" she blankly ordered.<br/>
Trevor was more than happy to comply, lips locking against hers quickly and desperately. Entirely unable to get enough.<br/>
All the while continuing his skillful rubbing. <br/>
Tommie caught herself unzipping his jeans to slide her hand inside his underwear to return the favor.<br/>
Trevor grunted against her lips in reply, noticeably tensing with the foreign touch but melting into it when she found a steady rhythm.<br/>
He ended up getting impatient and withdrawing his hand to pull her shorts off- which she ended up having to help with. It was a matter of a few blurred seconds before he pushed into her. Not even bothering to take off his pants, just letting them hang off his frame.<br/>
Tommie let out a whimper that disappeared against Trevor’s mouth. Her nails dragged down his back and he thrust harder in retaliation.<br/>
Tommie’s head reflexively tilted back and she let out a yelp, arms back up around Trevor’s shoulders and pulling him in tight. He moaned against her neck, having to slow down to resist the urge to ravage her. Steadying, making every movement count. This had to last. This was important.<br/>
Tommie couldn’t hold out any longer, couldn’t even find the words to let him know she’d reached the edge.<br/>
Only saw stars when she reached the high, instinctually pulling him closer by the back of his neck for another heated kiss..<br/>
Trevor tensed with her, following suit with a satisfied groan as he reached his own climax. Remembering, at least, to pull out before spilling on her stomach. Holding himself up at arm’s length as he came down from the high with her.<br/>
<br/>
The two stared at each other in the dark room, coming out of the moment.<br/>
Trevor kept back for a moment, like he was waiting to see what would come next. Unsure of what to say.<br/>
Tommie didn’t know what to say either.<br/>
So she said nothing, and quickly propped herself up to kiss him again.<br/>
Trevor quickly melted into the gesture.<br/>
The both of them, overcome with a feeling that was hard to define.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Out Loud</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tommie didn't manage sleep, even when Trevor was comfortably wrapped around her and snoozing away.<br/>She kept her eyes closed, and eventually opened them to see the sun starting to rise.<br/>Having spent the entire time coming to grips with leaving. And what she couldn't find the words to say.<br/><br/>It was a short parting.<br/>She reminded that it wasn't a 'goodbye'; but rather a 'see you later' that came with no time frame.<br/>It wasn't until she was seated on the plane that it really hit her. Tears. <br/>Just like the first time. Only worse.<br/><br/>The plane was a small private craft, reserved especially for Tommy Vercetti- who chose to accompany his daughter or the flight. Both not ready to part ways with his first and only child, and wanting to see his wife after twenty-some years apart.<br/>Tommie had watched Vice City shrink in the plane's windows until it disappeared under cloud cover.<br/>Trevor was returning to the mansion by now. He would stay under watch while Tommy was away. <br/><br/>The first few nights in the mansion were difficult for him.<br/>It'd been months since he slept in a room alone, and woke up just as alone.<br/>Rosa hadn't been able to contact him even now. Or maybe she just chose not to.<br/>She was home, with her family. Why would she want to talk to <em> him? <br/></em>The reflexive fear of abandonment made him crave relief, in the way he most often used to cope.<br/>But he kept his word to Rosa, and continued to take better care of himself even when she wasn't around. <br/><br/>Fear told him that she didn't really want him. <br/><br/>The picture of her in his head deterred that fear. <br/>Her choosing to stay while he was at his worst.<br/>How she warmed to him when he was better. <br/>The way she looked at him when she smiled. <br/>Every time she <em> chose </em>to touch him, hold him, kiss, share space, comfort, and have sex-- it gave him the reassurance he needed.<br/><br/>She did love him. Even if she hadn't said it yet. <br/>It was what he had to hold out for.<br/><br/>Tommie had observed her parents interact from a distance. After twenty years of separation, they needed the time.<br/><br/>The De Santas were selling their house. With Michael gone, they didn't feel right staying.<br/>Tommie ended up telling Tracey about Trevor- and got the reaction of absolute shock she'd expected.<br/><br/>Of course the police had questioned her about how she got home.<br/>She made up the lie that Trevor let her loose when they left San Andreas and she made it back on her own.<br/>The cops didn't seem to care enough to fact check. This was the LSPD, after all.<br/>Even the FIB didn't seem to want to waste their time on her with questions.<br/><br/>Tommy went back to Vice City after a few days. He couldn't leave Trevor alone at his place of business forever. <br/>Future visits were planned.<br/>He and Lita parted ways on better terms-- and Tommie got the sense that they were both trying to downplay that they were still very much in love. Like it was a secret they kept for themselves individually.<br/>Tommie gave it a month before there would be talks of a vow renewal. <br/><br/>Communication had to be stopped now that she was home. Her new phone, their internet, as well as Lita's phone were likely being monitored. No telling when that would end. <br/>They had to act normally and be patient until the search was undoubtedly over.<br/>Then things could be better. <br/><br/>It was a long month of adjusting back to normal life. <br/>Tommie’s job took her back immediately, but her performance had gone downward. She had a hard time seeing the point of it now. <br/>Strange how one change led to many.<br/>Still, she worked her minimum wage job to pass the time.<br/><br/>She wasn't slated to work today, so she stayed in bed all morning. <br/>A search for Trevor's name online yielded no updates on if the authorities were still investigating- just like the other times she'd tried to find updates.<br/>What if Tommy just turned him loose as soon as his daughter was out of the picture? He clearly didn't like Trevor much. Neither did Lita.<br/><br/>The doorbell ringing echoed through the otherwise empty house.<br/>Tommie groaned and rolled out of bed to put some pants on before she headed downstairs, expecting to see the same door-to-door Epsilon recruiters she told to fuck off every few months.<br/>Instead, she found their mail lady with a package under her arm. "Vercetti?"<br/>"Yeah," she replied as she was handed the stylus to sign for the box.<br/>They traded for the box, and she checked the address label. Just a PO box, addressed only to 'Vercetti'. <br/>"Uh. Thanks…"<br/><br/>After the postal worker had gone, Tommie brought the box out to the back yard. <br/>It wouldn't surprise her if the FIB had put some kind of wiretap in whatever the box contained. Better to have it out of the house and closer to the trash cans.<br/>She sat on a lawn chair and got to work on opening the box.<br/>Inside was an even smaller box.<br/>A burner phone.<br/>She unpacked the device to see that it was a simple flip phone. Even going as far as to open up the battery compartment to make sure it wasn't bugged or rigged to explode or whatever… Maybe she'd seen too many movies.<br/>She waited while the phone slowly powered on, ending up moving from the lawn chair to sit on the edge of the pool with her legs in the water. <br/>The phone appeared to be brand new. Zero minutes of usage, 100% battery, factory settings, no messages. Zero contacts in the directory. <br/>Maybe it was supposed to be for Lita.<br/>After all, it was only addressed to 'Vercetti'.<br/><br/>Tommie sighed and set the device on the concrete at her side. Lying back on the ground and idly staring up at the blue, cloudless sky.<br/>She really missed the weather.<br/>Her eyes closed for a long minute while she focused on the hot sunshine on her face.<br/>It took a few extra seconds to notice the burner phone buzzing against the concrete beside her leg. <br/>She reached for the device and held it over her face to see an unknown number calling with an area code she didn't recognize.<br/>If it was for Lita then she shouldn't answer…<br/>But, against her better judgment, out of morbid curiosity. She flipped the phone open and brought it to her ear, and answered with a hesitant "Hello…?"<br/><em>"Rosa?"<br/></em>"Oh my god-" She jolted upright at the sound of the familiar voice. "<em>Trevor!? </em>"<br/><em>"The one and only," </em>he replied, sounding to be in a good mood. <br/>Tommie let out a laugh, simply out of relief to know he was still okay. She didn't want to cry, but her eyes were stinging with tears that she blinked back. "How’s life at my dad's place?"<br/><em>"Pretty sure he wants me gone," </em> Trevor said.<br/>"Tell him I said to deal," she replied. "It shouldn't be much longer. I think..."<br/><em>"Weeeeeeeeell, he said something about setting me up with a flight out to Los Santos. Pretty sure he's serious too. He's saying ASAP."<br/></em>Tommie felt a spark of excitement when she heard that. <br/>If Tommy was sending him there, it was because the search had died down. The FIB must not have cared anymore about Devin Weston. <br/>Tommie couldn’t help but smile and play along. "Well, if he's really that serious…" <br/><em>"I think tomorrow might be the day," </em>Trevor continued. <em> "What do you think? Too soon?"<br/></em>She grinned and wiped her eyes when they overflowed. Heart racing, yet she'd never felt more at ease. "I think I really wanna see you tomorrow."<br/><em>"I think I do too," </em>Trevor agreed.<br/><br/><em>"... I love you."<br/></em>A brief pause on his end of the line.<br/>He wasn’t sure he'd really heard it. But the feeling it gave him was better than any high he'd ever experienced. <br/>Hearing it out loud was what he needed to really believe it.<br/>Across the continent, Trevor Philips wiped tears off his face with the back of his hand. "I love you too."</p>
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  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
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        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29810700">Vicious Dog</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/symmetry/pseuds/symmetry">symmetry</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
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